Former Republican U.S. Senator and Rye resident Scott Brown says it’s “time to get back into the political arena and help rebuild” the GOP.
Brown announced on Wednesday that he was immediately stepping down as president, CEO, and dean of the faculty of New England Law/Boston, due to what he said were differences of opinion with the board of directors over the vision for the school’s future.
The move now allows the former senator from Massachusetts to resume a political role.
“In the months ahead, I look forward to re-engaging in the political arena in support of candidates and causes who share my vision of re-building the Republican Party and moving our country beyond the partisan gridlock – goals that were incompatible with my role as the leader of a non-partisan academic institution,” Brown said in his statement.
Brown will now likely help raise money and endorse Republican candidates and elected officials running in next year’s elections, but the big question is whether he’ll run for office again.
“Scott Brown’s name will not be on the ballot in 2022,” Brown political adviser Colin Reed told the Monitor. “But as a resident of Rye, New Hampshire, if he has another political rodeo in him, it will be in the state of New Hampshire.”
Brown was a Massachusetts state senator when he upset Democratic state attorney general Martha Coakley in early 2010 during a special election to fill the final two years of the term of the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. Brown was defeated as he ran for reelection in 2012 by now-Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The former senator moved full-time to his longtime vacation home in Rye in December of 2013 and declared residency in New Hampshire. Four months later, he launched a GOP Senate bid in the Granite State, winning the Republican nomination that September. He narrowly lost the 2014 general election to incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Brown, in the weeks leading up to the 2016 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, endorsed then-candidate Donald Trump. After Trump won the 2016 presidential election, he nominated Brown as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand. He was confirmed by the Senate, and served in New Zealand until late last year.
Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan was quick to praise the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that passed the Senate this week by a 69-30 vote.
Hassan was part of the original group of 22 Democratic and Republican senators who negotiated the bill, which is packed full of federal funding for traditional infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and transit as well as broadband and clean water.
“This bipartisan infrastructure bill will be a game-changer for New Hampshire. It’s going to help fix our roads and bridges, expand high-speed internet access, and invest in clean water and clean energy – all while creating jobs and growing our economy,” Hassan emphasized in a statement put out minutes after the measure cleared its final hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday.
The infrastructure now heads to the Democratic controlled U.S. House, where passage is likely but still faces some hurdles.
When then-Gov. Hassan successfully ran for the Senate in 2016 – and as she seeks a second six-year term in the 2022 elections – she has repeatedly touted her ability to reach across the aisle to negotiate with Republicans.
“The bill reflects the spirit of New Hampshire – borne of hard work, compromise, and dialogue,” she said this week. “We found common ground, and in doing so, we’re delivering on our promise to American families by making a once-in-a-generation investment in our country’s infrastructure.”
If the bipartisan measure does become law, expect Hassan to showcase her role in crafting the package and the benefits to New Hampshire voters.
“She can tout her support of the bipartisan infrastructure deal and we’re going to see a lot press conferences and things unveiled that show the value to New Hampshire voters of this bill, and the money being spent,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics executive director Neil Levesque told the Monitor.
Hours after the Democratic Senate passed the bipartisan infrastructure package, it also passed a much larger $3.5 trillion budget resolution by a 50-49 party-line vote, which could hurt Hassan’s bipartisan claims.
The spending measure, crafted and supported by most Democrats and opposed by all of the chamber’s Republicans, includes nearly all key elements of the president’s American Families Plan, including the creation of a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program, funding for free universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds and free community college for all students. It expands the number and amounts of Pell Grants, extending the child tax credits that were included in the COVID relief package, and funding for numerous clean energy programs, and also includes expanding Medicare coverage for hearing, vision and dental.
The package, if passed into law, would become the biggest expansion of the federal government’s social safety net in decades. To pay for their plan, Democrats are calling for tax hikes on corporations and the wealthiest earners as well as beefing up the IRS in order to generate more revenue by cracking down on people who cheat or underpay on their taxes.
Hassan praised the budget resolution in a statement after its passage on Wednesday, saying “this budget takes a 360-degree approach to the most pressing challenges facing American families, workers, and businesses.”
But in an apparent acknowledgement of the measure’s extremely high price tag, and amid charges from the GOP that the spending bill will further fuel the current rise in inflation, Hassan pumped the brakes.
“There is now much work ahead of us to negotiate the details of the legislation and ensure that it responsibly meets the needs of families and our economy,” Hassan said.
While the bipartisan infrastructure package appears to be a political gift for Hassan as she runs for reelection next year, the partisan spending bill could become a liability, giving the Republicans ammunition to use against the senator.
If Hassan back the massive budget resolution “that is one sided and one party, she risks standing out as somebody who’s backing her party,” Levesque said. He added that Republicans “will say that $3.5 trillion Democratic-passed budget is cause for debt, wild government spending, and inflation.”
The Senate is currently split between the two parties, but the Democrats control the chamber by a razor thin majority due to the tie breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, through her constitutional role as president of the Senate. That means the GOP needs a net gain of just one seat to regain control of the chamber, which they lost in the 2020 election cycle.
Still, the GOP is playing plenty of defense – they’re defending 20 of the 34 seats up for grabs next year – including five seats where GOP senators are retiring. But national Republicans see strong opportunities to flip blue seats red in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire, if popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu decides to challenge Hassan.
The governor raised questions about the bipartisan infrastructure package on Monday during an interview with talk radio host Jack Heath on “Good Morning NH.”
“I don’t know exactly where the money’s going. I hope it is actually in infrastructure. A lot of times they say infrastructure, it’s really not,” Sununu said. “People have to understand we got $28 trillion in debt. Show me how we’re going to pay for this without burdening America with the bill for generations and generations.”
The governor added that “I have concerns on any spending coming out of Washington.”
The New Hampshire Democratic Party highlighted the governor’s comments in a new release titled “Sununu bashes bipartisan infrastructure deal that will deliver for New Hampshire.”