For Warren, this election is not just about her and Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown – it is about the party affiliation that follows their names.
CONCORD — For Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, this election is not just about her and Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown – it is about the party affiliation that follows their names.
“The Republicans have given us their vision,” goes a line in Warren’s stump speech, which she repeated over and over on the campaign trail on Wednesday. “Cut taxes for those at the top and let everybody else take their lumps. They have said that I got mine, the rest of you are on your own.”
As both Massachusetts Senate candidates deliver their final messages to voters, Warren is drawing on one major advantage she has in the state: demographics. According to the Secretary of State, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in Massachusetts by a more than a three to one margin. As the race remains close, Warren and her supporters are using a partisan argument to rally the Democratic base, and encourage activists to turn out the vote on Warren’s behalf. Elect Brown, Warren and her supporters argue, and Republicans will control the U.S. Senate.
Introducing Warren to a crowd of volunteers and activists at Warren’s Haverhill field office on Wednesday, Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini said he came from a Halloween party. “Everyone was dressed up in really scary costumes, so I was going to dress up as (Republican Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell,” he said, to laughter. “Because can you think of anything scarier than (Republican House Speaker) John Boehner in the House of Representatives or Mitch McConnell in the Senate?”
“There’s only one vote that counts and that’s the vote about which party is going to control the United States Senate,” Fiorentini continued. “We know which way Scott Brown is going to vote.”
The argument is one that Brown has worked hard to counteract. Brown’s closing television ad, released Wednesday, is titled “People over Party.” It includes a shot of Brown with Democratic President Barack Obama and says Brown would be a senator who is independent from his party, who chooses people over politics. Brown has tried to portray Warren as an overly partisan Democrat.
National groups on both sides of the aisle have gotten involved in the Massachusetts race, largely because it is one of the few in the country that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. And Warren and her supporters have tried to nationalize the race, tying Brown to Republican policies that are unpopular in Massachusetts.
Asked by a reporter about how to address climate change, Warren said she believes in having a strong Environmental Protection Agency, cutting subsidies to big oil and supporting offshore wind and clean energy alternatives. She then pivoted to her argument about Senate control. “Scott Brown’s going out to the other 49 states raising money saying help me get reelected because that increases the chances the Republicans are going to be in charge of the Senate,” Warren said. “And that means that Jim Inhofe would be the person who oversees the Environmental Protection Agency. This is a man who has written a book calling climate change a hoax…. Scott Brown is out there trying to get reelected in order to put those people in power.”
As she toured downtown Gloucester businesses with Democratic State Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, Warren received gifts from local businesses – a framed photo of a Gloucester fishermen’s memorial and a necklace with a pendant of Rhodonite, the Massachusetts state stone.
Then there was a stuffed Big Bird, matching one held by Lilliana DiMercurio, the 16-month-old granddaughter of City Councilor Bruce Tobey. “We care about Big Bird,” Warren quipped as she posed with Big Bird for the cameras, referring not to Brown, but to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s comments that he would cut federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The danger for Warren in making a partisan argument is in alienating independent voters. Polling has found Warren consistently trailing Brown among independents, and voters rank Brown as more likely to be an independent voice than Warren. But at the same time, polling has found that more Massachusetts voters want Democratic control of the Senate than want Republican control – a statistic that largely reflects voters’ party affiliation.
Several voters attending Warren’s campaign events on Wednesday said party was important to them. “If you elect someone, you’re not only electing them, you’re electing that party,” said Marty Koenig, a lifelong Democrat and retired social worker from Acton.
Carol Crowell, an editor and Democratic voter from Haverhill, said, “When Obama’s re-elected, he needs a Senate he can work with.”
The Republican/MassLive.com will be reporting from the campaign trail with Brown on Thursday.