Scott Brown: the GOP's New Go-to Guy

Massachusetts senator milking fame, growing influence
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 17, 2010 8:23 AM CDT
Scott Brown: The GOP's Celebrity Senator
Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., questions David Petraeus, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 16, 2010.   (AP Photo/Drew Angerer)

It's not every day that sitting presidents schedule a sit-down with freshman senators from the other party, but then, Politico notes, Scott Brown isn't your average freshman senator. In his brief time in the Senate, he’s become one of the most recognizable influential Republicans, and the party’s “closer” when recruiting candidates. “Scott Brown really created for us the ‘art of the possible,’” says a Rhode Island candidate, who says Brown’s the top guy he wants campaigning for him.

Brown’s instant status has drawn comparisons to recent celebrity Democrats who've populated the Senate, Hillary Clinton and Al Franken. But Clinton and Franken both kept a low profile initially, and Brown definitely hasn’t—he’s made more appearances in six months than Franken did in his first year. That’s in part because he faces reelection in just three years, and in part because “he enjoys being a celebrity,” theorizes one Massachusetts Republican activist. “It’s newer to him.” (More Scott Brown stories.)

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