NEW: Warren Calls Brown Out on Voting Record

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Adam Joseph Drici, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Democratic hopeful Elizabeth Warren took on her opponent Republican Senator Scott Brown's voting record when she spoke at the Democratic City Committee's Unity Breakfast in Worcester on Saturday.

"What this race boils down to is whose side do we stand on?" she said to the crowd gathered at Coral Seafood.

Brown's Voting Record

Warren proceeded to take Brown to task for voting against equal pay for equal work, the Buffett Rule to tax millionaires and the Democratic plan to extend the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year for individuals earning less than $250,000 a year.

"Scott Brown voted against extending tax cuts for 98 percent of the families here in Massachusetts and for 97 percent of the small businesses here in Massachusetts because he wanted to protect more tax cuts for the top two percent and three percent," she said.

Brown did not vote to increase taxes but to keep existing tax rates in place for all income brackets.

"Scott Brown is not a bad guy, he takes some good votes, but when it comes to issues that are really important to the families here in Massachusetts, he too often votes with millionares and billionaires, not with working people."

Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern, who introduced Warren at the event, called the Republican plan to raise taxes for the majority of Americans while cutting taxes for the wealthy "a prescription for disaster in this country."

"I think it's time to talk about Scott Brown's voting record," Warren said.

Brown Campaign Fires Back

“Professor Warren is obsessed with raising taxes," said the Brown campaign's Alleigh Marre.

"She supports a $3.4 trillion tax hike, which would be the largest in this country since World War II. Her extreme left-wing views and job-destroying policies would crush jobs and send our teetering economy over the cliff.”

Meanwhile, Brown campaign manager Jim Barnett issued a statement criticizing Warren for launching a new round of negative ads, allegedly at the behest of party heads in Washington.

"Elizabeth Warren's decision to start running negative ads was bad enough, but now we're learning that it happened at the direction of party leaders in Washington who feared that she was in danger of losing to Scott Brown," Barnett said.

"We had hoped for better in this campaign. Scott Brown is beholden to no one. We need more independent voices like Scott Brown who will always do what is right for Massachusetts, and not cave to the whims of party bosses in Washington."

The campaign also released a video featuring Arizona Senator John McCain officially endorsing Brown. McCain highlighted the National Guard experience of his fellow Senate Armed Services Committee member as indicative of his "strong leadership" ability in the wake of recent violence against American embassies abroad.