Kennedy successor Brown cast himself as moderate, though record shows contradictions

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Brown record doesn’t always match everyman image

BOSTON — As he campaigned for the U.S. Senate from the back of his green pickup, Scott Brown portrayed himself as an independent-minded everyman and moderate candidate fighting the Democratic “machine.”

But as a Republican in Massachusetts, Brown sometimes found himself to the right of his own party.

He once proposed an amendment which would have allowed emergency room doctors to deny emergency contraception to rape victims based on the doctor’s religious beliefs, which drew the ire of fellow Republicans. But, Brown voted for the final version of the bill without the amendment.

He has criticized the federal stimulus program as ineffective, but said he would not return the money.

And in the final weeks of the campaign, Brown benefited from the financial backing of conservative groups like the Tea Party movement which pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into television ads for him.

Like former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and even Barack Obama in 2008, Brown is getting a boost from his own limited political resume, according to Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. In the absence of a strong record or public profile, voters felt free to read into the candidates whatever they want.

“There is a virtue of not being a known commodity and not having tons of experience in the national spotlight,” Zelizer said. “With Palin, people knew nothing about her when she was introduced … and that was an asset at first.”

Brown was able to craft his own image in the public mind in large part because of an initial lackluster response from Democrat Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general who was considered by many a shoo-in after double-digit leads in polls coming off a primary win last month.

Only after Brown picked up momentum and polls reflected a tight race did Coakley respond, but it was too little, too late.

In his acceptance speak Tuesday night, Brown again declared himself an independent thinker.

“I go to Washington as the representative of no faction or interest, answering only to my conscience and to the people,” Brown said. “I’ve got a lot to learn in the Senate, but I know who I am and I know who I serve. I’m Scott Brown. I’m from Wrentham. I drive a truck, and I am nobody’s senator but yours.”

Key to Brown’s campaign was his pledge to be the 41st vote to block Obama’s health care initiative, but Brown himself voted in favor of the 2006 Massachusetts health care law that has been used as a blue print for the bill working its way through Congress.

On health care, Brown has said he supports providing health care to everyone, but would block the bill and send it “back to the drawing board.” But Brown has also said that providing health care is best left up to the states.

“There should be a way for the states to go and do what we have here,” Brown said in December. “They should have the ability to see what their needs are and what help they need, if any, from the federal government and tailor a plan that’s good for their individual states.”

Another key to his campaign was an strong anti-tax message. In his first television ad, he invoked President John F. Kennedy in calling for lower taxes. In the ad, Brown segued an old newsreel of Kennedy calling for tax cuts into a clip of Brown reading from the same speech.

But as a state senator Brown opposed a 2008 ballot initiative that would have eliminated the state income tax and saved the average taxpayer about $3,700 a year according to supporters.

He also supported hundreds of millions in higher fees and fines pushed by former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney during his first two years in office.

While he’s portrayed himself as an independent-minded candidate on the campaign trail, Brown’s campaign has pulled in support from deep-pocketed lobbying and interests groups, from U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Tea Party movement, and the Iowa-based conservative American Future Fund, which spent about $600,000 on an ad saying Coakley “supports the reckless spending by Washington politicians.”

During the campaign, Brown portrayed himself as stronger on national security. He said terror suspects shouldn’t have the same constitutional protections as U.S. citizens, and chastised Coakley for saying there were no al-Qaida terrorists left in Afghanistan.

He also campaigned alongside former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Brown was one of three Massachusetts representatives to vote against a bill that would have granted paid leave to state workers volunteering for disaster relief with the American Red Cross.

He’s also positioned himself to the right of his party’s 2008 presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, over the simulated drowning tactic known as waterboarding to gain information from suspected terrorists. McCain, who endorsed Brown, opposes waterboarding.

Brown said he doesn’t believe waterboarding is torture.

Brown, one of just five Republicans in the 40-member Massachusetts Senate, found himself at odds with other members of his party on social issues.

In 2005, Brown sponsored an amendment to a bill requiring hospitals make emergency contraception available to rape victims. Brown’s amendment would have created an exemption for doctors and nurses with “sincerely held religious beliefs” against abortion.

Coakley’s campaign seized on the issue, pointing out that even Brown’s Republican Senate colleagues criticized the proposal, saying the needs of rape victims should come first.

The criticism struck a nerve with Brown, who called it a “red herring.” At one point during the campaign, Brown’s two daughters — including a former “American Idol” contestant — met with reporters to vouch that their father cared about rape victims.

Although he touted the fact he’d put more than 200,000 miles on his truck, Brown earns a comfortable income and owns several properties, including his home in Wrentham, three apartments in Boston and a time share.

Besides his base Senate salary of $61,440, Brown also reported earning up to $20,000 from his National Guard service and between $80,000 and $100,000 from a law practice in 2008, according to his latest financial statement filed with the state.

Brown ran in part on a clean cut family image, touring the state dressed in a barn jacket, often with one or both of his daughters in tow. His wife, Gail Huff, a television reporter in Boston, was absent from the campaign until election night.

He’s also served 30 years as a member Massachusetts Army National Guard and holds rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

But while he was a law student, Brown traded on his matinee good looks for work as a model, and while still in law school, he posed nude for Cosmopolitan magazine — in a photo spread with a strategically placed crease in the magazine.

Associated Press Writer Glen Johnson in Boston contributed to this report.