BostonHerald
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Scott Brown vows to work with Dems

By Jessica Van Sack
Thursday, January 7, 2010

An exhausted but gung-ho Scott Brown vowed yesterday to win his insurgent campaign for U.S. Senate - while reassuring voters that they will only be sending him to Washington for two years.

“This is like a trial period,” he said. “People have the opportunity to send me down there for a couple years. ’Cause I’m up for re-election soon thereafter. So what have they got to lose?”

Sitting down with the Herald editorial board, the Republican state senator from Wrentham noted Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley’s light schedule of events.

“While Martha’s taking kind of a break, I’ve been everywhere,” he said. “I’m getting four hours of sleep. I’m losing my voice. I can barely see.”

Brown, who has a busy schedule of events despite fighting a cold, said he wants to play the part of a swing vote, sought after by both sides of the aisle.

“I give you my word. What’s the Republican party gonna to do to me? They haven’t really done much for me now,” he said. “So all of a sudden I’m obligated to them? I don’t owe anybody anything.”

With 12 days to go until the Jan. 19 special election - and on the heels of a poll showing him within striking distance of Coakley - Brown said his stance on issues makes him “the most important vote down there potentially.”

“If I go down there, I’ll be the 41st (Republican) senator,” he said. “The Democrats have to come to me and say, ‘Scott, we know you’re an independent guy, can we have you on this issue?’

“That’s a great position to be in,” he added.

Brown continued to paint himself as a social moderate who is tight-fisted with taxpayer dollars and hawkish on national security. He said there may be cases in which U.S. citizens should be treated as enemy combatants if they have undergone terrorism training outside the country.

More . . . including a video clip

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Great appeal strategy on his part.