As He Gears Up For Another Senate Run, Scott Brown Forgets What State He’s In

Last updated on October 1st, 2014 at 12:16 pm

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Former Republican Senator Scott Brown was in New Hampshire on Thursday night speaking to reporters when he had an unfortunate slip of words. Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the US Senate from 2010 to 2013 when he won a special election to take over Ted Kennedy’s seat after his death, has been not-so-subtly hinting that he will be making a run for Senate in New Hampshire in 2014. With no Senate elections coming up in Massachusetts until 2018, the ambitious Brown has been eyeing other opportunities to get back to Washington.

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After being handily defeated by Elizabeth Warren last November, Brown has gone to work for Fox News (naturally) and been making speaking appearances at fundraisers and conventions in the Northeast. With Democrat Jeanne Shaheen coming up for reelection in 2014. Brown has eyed the possibility of taking her on. Brown does own a vacation home in New Hampshire, so he’s started making moves to make that his permanent residence. He has started a PAC in the state. Further, he’s taken the ‘MA’ out of his Twitter handle.

 

Anyway, while speaking to reporters on Thursday in Londonberry, NH, Brown made a rather embarrassing flub:

 

 

In case you didn’t catch it, here is what he said:

 

“What I’ve heard from the Republicans up here is they’re thankful that I’ve been around for a year, helping them raise money, helping them raise awareness as to the issues that are affecting not only people here in Massachusett-uh, in New Hampshire, but also in Massachusetts, obviously. I’ve been to Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, I’ve been all over the New England area, certainly, talking and helping people raise money.”

 

Brown did attempt to save himself after he realized he said Massachusetts. He made a valiant effort to pivot and say that he’s been all over New England fundraising, perhaps giving him cover on why he’d be confused. However, it is still problematic for him as he has to try to appeal to voters in New Hampshire and convince them that he isn’t just a carpetbagger using their state as a springboard back to Washington. Considering that he ran twice in three years for the Senate in Massachusetts, and also considered running for governor there, it will be tough to run away from the notion that this is just a contrived, calculated move by him to get back in public office.

 

If Brown moves forward with his campaign to challenge Shaheen, he won’t be alone. Former Republican Senator Bob Smith has stated that he plans on running as well. While Smith has been regarded as something as a joke for years now, he still might pose a decent challenge in a Republican primary for Brown, especially considering that he actually served in the Senate from New Hampshire in the past. Obviously Smith’s campaign will hit Brown on him being from Massachusetts (though Smith actually tried to run for office in Florida twice) and if Brown gets past Smith, Shaheen will definitely take him to task about it.

 



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