During one of the final debates before his election, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) Ai??told Massachusetts voters that the seat he was running for was “not the Kennedy’s seat, it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat.” Watch it:
Yet while he’s avoided taking open meetings with his constituents, there’s one sort of event he has never shied away from: Washington, D.C. fundraisers.
Since he’s been elected Brown has had at least thirty fundraisers in the city (including two today), according to the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Party Time database. Many of these fundraisers feature elite lobbyists from various lobbying firms and corporations. Here’s a sampling:
- Patton Boggs: Brown was in office for less than a month before he appeared at Patton Boggs, a massive D.C. lobbying firm with around 600 employees. Its clients range from weapons makers like Northrop Grumman to oil companies like Shell Oil to for-profit colleges.
- The Washington Tax Group: When corporations want special favors and tax treatment, they go to this lobbying outfit, which brags on its website that it specializes “in the development and implementation of legislative and regulatory solutions” for corporations. In May of last year, Brown attended a fundraiserAi??hosted in part by Jan Fowler, its director. The lobbying group has powerful clients including Pfizer and Monsanto.
- The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB): The NAB — a notoriously powerful lobby of broadcasters that has worked to crush small media outlets like low-power radio stations — hosted a fundraiser in D.C. for Brown this past June. For $2,500 a piece, political action committees were invited to co-host the event.
These are just three examples from the thirty D.C. fundraisers Scott Brown held while he consistently avoided holding even a single open town hall for any of his constituents to come to.
It appears that there’s one way to get Brown’s attention: be a lobbyist for a powerful corporation and offer him some campaign cash.
Heads up, Massachusetts voters, see who WON’T represent you.
I’m sure their must be republicans who are honor their commitment to the job they’ve sought and won and to the community they represent, but will somebody please discover the mutated gene that allows them to become takers, borderline if not outright dishonest, and ultimately so blasted entitled.
I’m beginning to consider that if “end times” are more fact than myth, they may be closer than I’ve ever thought, a creeping army of the entitled want to take over.
I agree totally. I remember Republicans who were not these people at all. They were just conservative not crazy & evil, racist & bigoted. Who are these creeps? Nitt Mitt is a liar, draft dodger, job outsourcer, company killer, tax dodger, horrible dementia patient.
I have always felt that Scott Brown is a political wolf in sheep’s clothing. Elizabeth Warren does not hide the fact that she is a true progressive. She fought for and won the battle to establish the Consumers Financial Protection Bureau. That’s all the proof I need.
It is interesting that you should call Scott Brown a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I wrote a letter to the editor calling him the same thing in reference to his insisting that he is an independent voter. Don’t let him fool you–he is a Republican through and through. His voting record on the issues that count shows it perfectly clear.
I think Senator Brown doesn’t have town hall meetings for the same reason he keeps bringing up red herrings about Elizabeth Warren, he doesn’t want to discuss his voting record.
How does this contrast with the Kennedy’s? Or with Nancy Pelosi, or even Obama? I am confused how we can isolate on member of congress or the senate and complain of their behavior when identicle patterns are exhibited on both sides of the isle. I recall It is this type of behavior that the republicans tried to change with their campaign reform laws. This behavior form our representatives on both sides of the isle is exactly what is wrong with politics today, Our politicians sell their votes, not based on their constituents, but to the highest bidder. Often, the bidder is the National party the affiliate themselves with.
Easy. When they are YOUR congressperson or senator you have every right to complain about how they do or do not behave.
Enough with the “Both sides are the same” spiel. One side wants to legislate my uterus, my gay friends’ bedrooms, strip away workers’ protections, social safety nets, and slash funding for schools, police, fire departments, PBS, and many other things that make us a society, all while giving extra “trickle down” cuts to their bloated money-hoarder buddies. One side does not. Mittens Jr. here is on the wrong side. Liz Warren has my vote.
Activist organizations must become united in helping to build widespread public realization that the remedies are publicly-funded elections and passage of a constitutional amendment removing corporations’ First Amendment personhood rights to lobby and advocate in elections.
I wouldn’t look to throw punches for the same things that plenty of Democrats do or fail to do. (e.g. Who avoids more non-scriptable press conferences or attends more rich donor fundraisers than Obama?) I’d keep hitting Brown instead on the relative, lesser evil differential: i.e. Brown, the fake “bipartisan moderate”, consistently votes to give the job- destroying billionaires everything they want, unlike the Democrats who give them less, albeit far more than they should get.
The reason Brown’s ads are disgustingly against Warren being part Native American is because HE DOESN’T DARE RUN ON HIS RECORD! Hasn’t anyone figured that out yet?
Let’s prove that we own the senate seat by pushing hard to get Elizabeth Warren elected. We are lucky that she has been willing to beat the odds for coming from being unknown to gaining national recognition and respect for creation of the Consumers Protection agency and ability to fight hard against the interests of the super wealthy.
Beverly Simpson
I would like to see Scott Brown get voted out of U.S. politics PERMANENTLY!!!!!!
Scott Brown is very good at politely answering constituent letters in response to petitions and in acknowledging concerns, but then he fails to address the concerns or even state his true position on the issues. It’s another avoidance technique to mask his voting record. Now he has his surrogates engage in pseudo Native American antics to again distract us from his voting record.
Massachusetts voters have no idea of just what game Scott Brown is playing. Brown has considerable interest in KG Urban a wall street firm that is in the competition for the Southeastern Massachusetts Gambling Casino. KG Urban is fighting two Wampanoag Indian Tribes for this particular license in Court. Brown is using the phony isssue of Warren’s Native American ancestry to stoke low intensity white voter resentment of the government giving sovereign gaming rights to Native Indian Tribes. If Brown is re-elected he is sure to put a lot of pressure on the Department of Interior to block tribal access to securing this potentially super profitable casino in Southeastern Massachusetts.