Editorial: Brown for U.S. SenateWednesday October 22, 2014
Boston Herald Staff
New England Republicans may be scarce in Congress but New England voters who consider themselves moderate or conservative aren’t exactly in short supply. And in the November election Scott Brown represents one of the best chances for those voters to have their voices heard in Washington. The Herald is pleased to endorse Brown for election to the U.S. Senate from New Hampshire.
The erstwhile Massachusetts senator has tapped into a campaign theme that ought to resonate with our neighbors to the north. He is a Republican, but he is a consensus-builder. During his legislative and congressional career he has voted with Republicans, and he has voted with Democrats. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the incumbent Brown hopes to unseat, can’t make the same claim.
As that clever pro-Brown ad now in heavy rotation notes, Shaheen has voted with President Obama and her party 99 percent of the time during her time in the Senate. That’s an astonishing record for a senator from a state generally known for its independence. New Hampshire may be bluer than it used to be — it went for Obama twice — but it’s hardly … well, it’s hardly Massachusetts.
And right now the people of New Hampshire are hurting, so not surprisingly the president’s Granite State approval rating is taking a hit too.
This year more than most this election is about the economy. It’s about the disaster that is Obama-care, which Shaheen continues to support and which Brown voted against. It’s about immigration reform. And, increasingly, it’s about national security, a matter with which Brown, who recently retired from the National Guard after more than three decades of service, is deeply familiar.
Here in Massachusetts, we know Scott Brown. We know his strengths and we know his weaknesses. We know that his moderate views on a host of issues — including issues important to women — are in keeping with the views of many New Englanders. And we know that, unlike his opponent, he won’t spend the next six years mindlessly pulling the lever the way his party leadership tells him to.
He will represent New Hampshire’s interests, which are our shared interests, and in doing so give his neighbors to the south something we have lacked — a real bipartisan voice. The Herald is pleased to endorse Scott Brown for U.S. Senate.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/editorials/2014/10/editorial_brown_for_us_senate
