Tax policies, voting histories part of attacks in first Warren-Brown debate

In the first debate of one of the most highly watched election races in the country, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown called U.S. senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren “obsessed” with raising taxes as Warren said her Republican incumbent voted against creating more jobs.

“We can put people back to work — we have work that needs to be done,” she said, “but Sen. Brown is lining up with the Republicans to vote ‘no.’”Warren criticized Brown on three job bills he voted against, which she said would have created more than 30,000 jobs in the Commonwealth.

Brown criticized Warren’s tax policies, quoting a National Federation of Independent Business study that he said suggested Warren would lose about three-quarters of a million jobs across the U.S.

Despite Warren’s claims, Brown said he is the second-most bipartisan senator in the U.S. Senate — an emphasis he has made for the past few months with Democratic endorsements in an advertising campaign called “Democrats for Brown.”

Brown took the chance several times to liken himself to the former Democratic U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose seat he filled in a special election in 2010.

Brown said the greatest issue with education was administrative costs, pointing out that Warren and her husband make about $750,000 on their teacher’s salaries.

Warren said she was offended by Republican incumbent Brown’s claim that she would cost Massachusetts voters more than 700,000 jobs and that she is too focused on raising taxes.

Warren also publicly addressed the scandal over her Native American heritage claims, which emerged in May.

“What I really want this race to be about is the issues,” she said. “Not about my family, but the families across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who are very affected by this race.”

But Brown said the race is still about character before calling for Warren and Harvard University to release the candidate’s records.

“The only way to set the record straight is for you to release your personnel records,” he said. “You refuse to release your records, and I think that speaks volumes.”

Reports emerged from multiple news outlets Thursday afternoon that Brown was using a Senate vote as an excuse to cancel the debate, including statements from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid—which Brown’s campaign manager Jim Barnett called “absurd.”

“[Viewers] saw from Professor Warren what you’d expect to see — someone determined to raise taxes,” Barnett  said after the debate. “Her tax policies will cost at least 700,000 jobs in America, 17,000 right here in Massachusetts.”

Although multiple recently released polls show Warren with a lead, the latest University of Massachusetts Lowell and Boston Herald poll released Wednesday shows Brown with a six-point lead among registered voters.

With fewer than 50 days to the election, candidates still have time to pull ahead and prepare for the next UMass Lowell debate on Oct. 1.

Warren will attend a campaign rally on Friday in Roslindale, where news outlets report Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will be to endorse Warren.