Scott Brown’s Campaign Mocks His Opponent As A ‘Senator From Massachusetts’

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., comments on President Obama's healthcare reform plan, in Boston Monday, March 22, 2010, one day after the bill passed the House of Representatives in Washington. President Barack Obama is p... Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., comments on President Obama's healthcare reform plan, in Boston Monday, March 22, 2010, one day after the bill passed the House of Representatives in Washington. President Barack Obama is preparing to sign a transformative health care bill ushering in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the nation's history _ and then hit the road to sell it to a reluctant public. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Eager to shed his identity as a former senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown’s campaign is now apparently deriding his opponent as the “third senator from Massachusetts.”

As he kicked off his Senate campaign in New Hampshire last week, Brown received assistance from the state’s former Republican governor, John H. Sununu.

Sununu didn’t steer clear of Brown’s biggest impediment as a candidate in the Granite State. Instead, the former White House chief of staff who served as one of Mitt Romney’s most confrontational surrogates in 2012 projected that weakness right onto Brown’s Democratic opponent, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

“[Shaheen] votes with Elizabeth Warren. She votes with [Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed] Markey. She is the third senator from Massachusetts,” Sunnunu said at Brown’s Portsmouth, N.H. rally, according to Yahoo’s Chris Moody. “Scott’s happiest days as a young man were in New Hampshire. … So it’s going to be great to have a senator that was born virtually in the state of New Hampshire. Jean Shaheen, by the way, was born in Missouri!”

Brown was born in Maine, and as Moody put it, the Republican “quite literally was, and very much wanted to remain, a senator from Massachusetts.”

Sununu’s turn of phrase was reminiscent of Karl Rove’s “attack the strength” gambit, a campaign tactic that aims to raise doubts about an opponent’s perceived biggest advantage. And in this case, Shaheen’s biggest advantage is that she isn’t a carpetbagger.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: