U.S. Sen. Scott Brown entered the race for re-election on Thursday, the two-year anniversary of his win, four months after his frontrunner opponent, Elizabeth Warren, announced her candidacy.
On Jan. 19, Brown announced he was running for a second term with his first official campaign event at Mechanics Hall in Worcester.
“I pledge to you and the people of Massachusetts that if I am once again entrusted with the people’s seat, that I give everything that is in me to be a good and faithful senator,” Brown said.
Before he took the stage, Brown’s wife Gail Huff made a speech in which she joked about her concerns for his election in 2010.
“Even though I knew he was right, I wasn’t so sure everyone else would know he was right and I wasn’t sure of his chances of winning,” Huff said. “But after 25 years of marriage, I guess I should have known Scott Brown.”
In his speech, Brown talked about repealing “ObamaCare,” the national debt and the lack of bipartisan lawmakers.
“Our one unfinished fight, frankly, is our fight to get rid of ObamaCare,” Brown said. “Especially in Massachusetts, a government takeover of healthcare was a bad idea to begin with, and the way it was rammed through Congress was even worse.”
The crowd, which Mechanic Hall’s publicist Kathleen Gagne said numbered about 1,000 people, booed as Brown talked about fighting between Republicans and Democrats.
“[Political parties in D.C.] want to get back to one party, one way of thinking, one way of voting,” Brown said. “Going in one direction and doing what you’re told.”
During his speech and in his first campaign video to hit the Internet, Brown continues to label himself as an Independent, despite the fact that his win in 2010 was seen as a victory for the Republican Party.
Professors and students said they question whether, after two years in office, they really know Scott Brown.
College of Communication Professor Robert Zelnick, who was one of the panel members at the discussion of the Obama presidency in the fall, said he attributes the conservative change to the worsening economy and a lack of faith in the Obama administration.
“When you have an objectively difficult situation,” Zelnick said, “people have no real way of expressing themselves except through the political system by throwing the bums out and electing a new group of bums to take over.”
Zelnick said the large number of youth that voted in 2008 were “a momentary ripple of involvement.”
As a reporter and as a teacher, Zelnick said he has not seen large amounts of student involvement since the Vietnam War, when the issues the youth cared about were at the forefront of national politics.
Although his campaign video features many clips of students, Brown’s speech did not touch upon topics the youth are concerned about, such as the environment and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Zelnick said.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Joseph Petroski said there are ways to get the youth involved.
“Maybe with things like SOPA, politicians can get more votes from younger kids,” Petroski said, “but politicians cater to baby boomers because they turn out the best.”
While Brown called for an end to ObamaCare in his speech, School of Hospitality Administration senior Danielle Clark Cole said she wants better health care and believes Massachusetts does too.
Clark Cole said she questions the authenticity of politicians’ motives.
“I think that they pretend to care so they can get your vote,” she said.
State elections will be held on Nov. 6. Brown’s office did not respond to a request for a comment at press time.
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