Scott Brown

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, whose upset victory in early 2010 marked the moment when many started to take the tea party movement seriously, leads his likely 2012 Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren by 9 percentage points, according to a new survey of voters. Brown has 49% support compared with Warren's 40%, according to a Suffolk University poll released Thursday. Warren, whose reputation as a consumer advocate has made her the darling of progressive activists, holds a commanding lead over her Democratic challengers for the party's nomination, which will be decided in the primary election Sept.

In spite of the attention paid to the controversy over Elizabeth Warren's purported Native American heritage, the Democratic Senate hopeful has tightened the race against incumbent Sen. Scott Brown, according to new polling. The race is now well within the margin of error of the latest Suffolk University/7NEWS poll , with Brown holding a single point lead over Warren, 48% to 47%, with 5% of voters undecided. The numbers show a steady rise for Warren, who in February was 9 points behind Brown, 49% to 40%. “This leaves both campaigns no choice but to spend tens of millions of dollars in an all-out war to woo the 5% of voters who will decide this election,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said.

In spite of the attention paid to the controversy over Elizabeth Warren's purported Native American heritage, the Democratic Senate hopeful has tightened the race against incumbent Sen. Scott Brown, according to new polling. The race is now well within the margin of error of the latest Suffolk University/7NEWS poll , with Brown holding a single point lead over Warren, 48% to 47%, with 5% of voters undecided. The numbers show a steady rise for Warren, who in February was 9 points behind Brown, 49% to 40%. “This leaves both campaigns no choice but to spend tens of millions of dollars in an all-out war to woo the 5% of voters who will decide this election,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said.

MassachusettsSen. Scott Brownhas picked up the endorsement of outgoingSen. Olympia Snowe, the Republican senator from Maine who last week scolded the chamber for becoming a “parrallel universe” of extreme partisanship. The endorsement from Snowe, known as one of the Senate's last moderates, could help Brown in his effort to win reelection nearly three years after he swept into office on the tea party wave. Anticipating a challenge from consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, Brown has been campaigning as “an independent voice.” In her endorsement statement, Snowe echoed the slogan, praising Brown for his “independent spirit and bipartisan outlook.” “Like me, he approaches each issue with an open mind and is always willing to reach across the aisle to build bridges and find common ground,” Snowe said in a statement posted to Brown's campaign website.

Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican who captured a traditionally Democratic seat in Massachusetts and who faces a tough reelection next year, has asked to do his National Guard training this year in Afghanistan. Brown captured the seat held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in a closely watched race that featured a battle over healthcare overhaul. He is up for reelection in 2012. “As a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, I have service obligations that I fulfill each year,” Brown said in a prepared statement.

MassachusettsSen. Scott Brownhas picked up the endorsement of outgoingSen. Olympia Snowe, the Republican senator from Maine who last week scolded the chamber for becoming a “parrallel universe” of extreme partisanship. The endorsement from Snowe, known as one of the Senate's last moderates, could help Brown in his effort to win reelection nearly three years after he swept into office on the tea party wave. Anticipating a challenge from consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, Brown has been campaigning as “an independent voice.” In her endorsement statement, Snowe echoed the slogan, praising Brown for his “independent spirit and bipartisan outlook.” “Like me, he approaches each issue with an open mind and is always willing to reach across the aisle to build bridges and find common ground,” Snowe said in a statement posted to Brown's campaign website.

For residents of this picturesque New England town, Scott Brown's exercise routine was a familiar sight -- steady and symbolic of the man himself. He could be seen running down the main drag -- past the hardware store that sells brown eggs, past the bakery with the pumpkin whoopie pies -- almost every day. No headphones. Occasionally with his daughter. Always with purpose. "Running, not jogging," said Nabil Shehata, the owner of a pizza and subs place in the center of this Boston bedroom community.

Democrats are encouraging Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration advisor setting up the newly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to enter the Senate race in Massachusetts against Republican incumbent Scott Brown. For the last several weeks, senior Democrats have been courting the Harvard professor, who is on leave this year to work as an administration advisor, viewing her as the best hope against Brown, whose populist campaign won the 2010 special election for the seat held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, in a precursor to that fall’s GOP wave.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown's office is blaming a staff error for what appears to be borrowed text on the Massachusetts senator's official website. A spokesman says inspirational text that once appeared on the website of former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole landed on Brown's site by accident. "Sen. Dole's website served as one of the models for Sen. Brown's website when he first took office," said John Donnelly. "During construction of the site, the content on this particular page was inadvertently transferred without being rewritten.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown has come out against Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan and its proposed overhaul of Medicare, a move that further exposes the deep divisions within the GOP over the proposal. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story said Susan Collins was up for reelection next year. She's next up in 2014. In an Op-Ed article in Politico, Brown, from Massachusetts, said he couldn’t support Ryan’s plan because it would force seniors to pick up too much of the burden for rising healthcare costs.

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, whose upset victory in early 2010 marked the moment when many started to take the tea party movement seriously, leads his likely 2012 Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren by 9 percentage points, according to a new survey of voters. Brown has 49% support compared with Warren's 40%, according to a Suffolk University poll released Thursday. Warren, whose reputation as a consumer advocate has made her the darling of progressive activists, holds a commanding lead over her Democratic challengers for the party's nomination, which will be decided in the primary election Sept.

The race is for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, but it's really a referendum on Wall Street. On one side is Democrat Elizabeth Warren, the architect of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an inspiration for the Occupy Wall Street movement. On the other: incumbent Republican Scott Brown, one of the biggest recipients of campaign contributions from the financial industry. Brown is campaigning on traditional Republican themes of smaller government and lower taxes.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown's office is blaming a staff error for what appears to be borrowed text on the Massachusetts senator's official website. A spokesman says inspirational text that once appeared on the website of former North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole landed on Brown's site by accident. "Sen. Dole's website served as one of the models for Sen. Brown's website when he first took office," said John Donnelly. "During construction of the site, the content on this particular page was inadvertently transferred without being rewritten.

With two words, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown launched himself into controversy Thursday morning when he joked about being glad that Elizabeth Warren, his likely Democratic opponent in 2012, had never posed in the nude. Brown was responding to a quip Warren made at a Democratic debate Tuesday.  Asked how she had paid for college - compared with Brown, who once posed partially nude for Cosmopolitan - Warren said: “I kept my clothes on.” Brown fired back during an interview onBoston radio station WZLX: “Thank God!

Elizabeth Warren, the darling of progressives, on Thursday moved a step closer to running against Sen. Scott Brown by forming an exploratory committee and launching a website for her likely race in Massachusetts. A consumer advocate and Harvard law professor, she has been signaling for weeks that she is preparing to run against Brown in what will become a closely watched Senate race in 2012. Amid the frenzy over President Obama's healthcare overhaul, Brown, with the backing of the “tea party” movement, captured the Senate seat held by the late liberal icon, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Democrats are encouraging Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration advisor setting up the newly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to enter the Senate race in Massachusetts against Republican incumbent Scott Brown. For the last several weeks, senior Democrats have been courting the Harvard professor, who is on leave this year to work as an administration advisor, viewing her as the best hope against Brown, whose populist campaign won the 2010 special election for the seat held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, in a precursor to that fall’s GOP wave.

Republican candidates for Congress are latching onto Scott Brown's bolt-from-the-blue win this week in the Massachusetts Senate race, with political outsiders and longtime office-holders alike casting themselves in a similar mold -- or seeing him in their image. Brown was a fairly obscure state senator who shocked the Democratic favorite, Martha Coakley, in the race to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) by employing a tightly focused, populist, anti- Washington message.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown has come out against Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan and its proposed overhaul of Medicare, a move that further exposes the deep divisions within the GOP over the proposal. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story said Susan Collins was up for reelection next year. She's next up in 2014. In an Op-Ed article in Politico, Brown, from Massachusetts, said he couldn’t support Ryan’s plan because it would force seniors to pick up too much of the burden for rising healthcare costs.

Probing for weakness, Democrats are piling on the gaffe made by Sen. Scott Brown this week, who said he had seen photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse that were not, in fact, actual photos of the slain Al Qaeda leader. Brown, Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and other senators were duped by phony images, although it remains unclear how they obtained them. For Democrats, the Massachusetts Republican is the biggest target, however—and Brown didn’t help himself earlier in this week when he declared for the New England media, “I’ve seen the picture.