Scott Brown complained to the Boston Herald this week that the media is not nearly as tough on Elizabeth Warren as it is on him. “Every single day of my existence,” he moaned, “I get tough questions from you guys.”
Tough questions? And every single day? Well, maybe not on the day of this interview. The Herald reporter can be heard agreeing with him that the media really ought to be harder on Warren, which, while it probably felt totally validating, undermined his claim some.
And here’s another day when Brown did not get tough questions from the media. This story, which appeared in the North Adams Transcript last January, is a masterpiece of the media softball genre, and it’s of special interest because Brown consigliere Dan Winslow once recommended it for its “great insight into why Scott Brown will overwhelmingly be reelected United States Senator. And why he deserves to be.” OK then.
The story covers a visit Brown made to Western Massachusetts just after a snowstorm. He and North Adams Mayor Richard “Red” Alcombright visited Jack’s Hot Dog Stand, where he paid for everybody’s lunch and also fielded these inquiries from the Transcript reporter.
Question: Are you fazed by the snowstorm?
Answer: “We’re from New England, so the snow shouldn’t matter,” he said. “It’s a beautiful snow, which is an inconvenience for some of us. I think many residents are enjoying a day off from work, but for me, it’s another day in the office.
Question: Did you make the trip to Western Massachusetts in the “infamous” truck?
Answer: “The truck’s at home for my kids – it has four-wheel drive,” he said, referring to daughters, Ayla, 22 and Arianna, 20. “I talked with them earlier. They’re enjoying a day off in front of the fire, watching television.”
Question: How did your wife like the fan letter that Mayor Alcombright’s mother sent to her?
Answer: “She got a real kick out of it.”
Question: Do you have a comment on the hot-dog eating record at Jack’s – 26 in one hour?
Answer: “That’s a lot of hot dogs.”
Tough questions from the media every single day of his existence? Now that’s a lot of hot dogs.
state of affairs in journalism today than our junior senator. It reads like a story from a good weekly.
God bless Mr. Winslow. That’s some silliness that can work since it’s doubtful anyone east of Rte. 91 understands that there’s a difference between Western Massachusetts and North Berkshires, or for that matter, between the North and South Berkshires.
given that a half million more people ride the T on a weekday than live in the westernmost *four* counties of Massachusetts.
less a matter of population than relevance and influence. Aside from Williamstown, there is nothing much in the northern part of Berkshire County. Nice New England towns, nice landscape, not much else. Even if you count Pittsfield, which doesn’t have much. It’s markedly more poor than
Southern Berkshire county, which has a lot of tourism supporting it.
Hampshire County has more money than N. Berkshire County and historically a lot of influence with Stan Rosenberg and John Olver. We are also an educational mecca with the 5 Colleges. It’s not the city, but we have a lot of the offerings with fewer of the problems.
North Adams is as relevant as relevant to Masschusetts as North Dakota is to the United States.
I’ve taken trips out West, just to go to North Adams, so there!
John Olver worked hard to get that to happen.
How many hipsters get in their zipcars and drive out there from JP or Somerville every day? How much carbon would be saved by shutting it down and turning it back into some kind of useful factory?
I think, despite this chintzy non-journalism by the North Adams Daily Stenographer that Western Mass does not seem terribly taken in by Brown. His special election notwithstanding, in a normal election (like the governor’s race) and in polls out on a Warren v. Brown match up, the four western counties are pretty blue except for the iconoclasts in Westfield. I say that with a great deal of familiarity with Westfield before anybody gets offended. My grandmother lives there and she loves that town and yet doesn’t understand where its coming from half the time.
a small, working class town of 6,300. We went for Scott Brown by 19 points, though that doesn’t seem like that wide a margin given how much of the state went for Brown over Coakley. Most of my town’s Brown voters are independents. It will be interesting to see how many go for Warren this time around.
Looking at the map, however, Brown may be barking up the right tree. North Adams, which didn’t cast a lot of votes, went about 3 to 1 for Coakley. Berkshire County mostly went for Coakley. If he could eat into that margin… Though I doubt it would make a difference.
Not familiar enough with it, but I take your point. I do think, however, especially in a Presidential year Brown won’t waste his time in most of WMass. The best he can hope for is less than stellar turnout in the 413. Warren on the other hand can play to WMass to improve turnout & then still compete in the more purple parts of the state that usually decide the election.
Brown was swept in by the combination of Tea Party enthusiasm and lack thereof with the Coakley campaign.
There’s not much to be familiar with in Granby. We’re a small town, where, since its inception, people have moved to get a piece of their own. If those folks were upwardly mobile, they’d probably move elsewhere. You can still buy land and build a house here.
We have a lot of self-employed people in the trades, and they often use their property for their business. It’s not uncommon for people to work substantially building their own houses and to trade work with others in the trades.
and did that have a bearing on the vote totals, or was it other voting issues at play? Also, I’m always a bit confused by the “independents went this way in this election” claim because I feel they are more unaffiliated, without any party attachment to their names, than independent, and tend to vote to one side or the other fairly reliably. For example, I registered independent or unaffiliated through most of my 40 year voting career, but generally voted Democratic in elections. I wonder how many other follow that pattern.
According to Wikipedia, MC was born in Pittsfield, moved to North Adams at age one, graduated from Drury High, went to Williams for undergrad, then went to BU Law and stayed in Boston after that. Her best-known job before state AG, of course, was as DA for Middesex County.
less than 5000 votes in the last election. I think it was more like three.
I kind of doubt her roots had much effect on her totals. The North and South of the county are hardly unified. I’d have to look at previous results to tell.
Is it a weekday when it is really hot? Or cold? Or snowing? Or raining? Or windy? Or after the 38% fare hike?
Today is cold.
…
Given Brown’s voting record and rhetoric, many questions that he gets are tough to answer without looking like a fool or a knave.
Since Warren is a full-blown FDR Democrat, she can simply answer questions fully and forthrightly. No spin or evasion needed.
He’s hosting job fairs:
Sen. Scott Brown to host job fair at Worcester State University
will go. She wants his job.