A Profile of Republican Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown

In January 2010, Republican Scott Philip Brown ran an intelligent special election campaign for the U.S. Senate seat once held by Edward Kennedy. Rather than obfuscate his platform with nebulous positions, Brown embraced his conservative ideology despite Massachusettes' historic liberal inclinations. While he received support from many conservative groups, the most important plan in his platform was his opposition to a health care reform plan that was supported by Congressional Democrats. His decisive victory in such a liberal area of the country ensured him a prominent place in conservative and Republican politics.

Brown was born on Sept. 12, 1959 in Wakefield, Mass. to C. Bruce and Judith Brown, who divorced about a year later. Both his parents have since remarried, but he periodically lived with his grandparents as he was growing up. When he was 12, Brown was brought before a judge for shoplifting and claims the experience prevented him from ever stealing again. He graduated from Wakefield High School in 1977, earned a bachelors degree from Tufts University in 1981 and received a law degree from Boston College Law School in 1985. He joined the Massachusetts National Guard at 19.

Brown holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the state National Guard. His first action in the service was during a rescue effort associated with the blizzard of 1978. Until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, Brown served as the Army Guard's head attorney in New England, assisting the Judge Advocate General's Corps in defending Guard members with legal problems. Brown has served the Guard in Kazakhstan and Paraguay, and received an Army Commendation Medal for heroic service in the aftermath of the terror attacks of 9/11. On Sept. 12, 2009, Brown reached the National Guard's mandatory retirement age of 50.

Before he was 10, Brown expressed an interest in politics, according to his father, who served as a city councilor for 18 years. Brown, who comes from a long line of Republicans, accompanied his father on campaign stops when the elder Brown ran for state-wide office in the mid-1960s. Brown expressed his own interest in politics in the early 1990s. In 1992, he was elected as an assessor in Wrentham, Mass. before ascending to the position of Wrentham selectman in 1995. Three years later, he was elected to the Massachusetts House.

Brown was elected to the state Senate in a special election in 2004 after the resignation of a 10-year Democratic incumbent. He was re-elected in 2004, 2006 and 2008. One of Brown's most notable votes was in favor of the Massachusetts health care system in 2006, which requires state residents to purchase health insurance. Brown said he cast his vote for the plan because it is a "free market enterprise" that helps state residents purchase individualized coverage. Over the course of his career in the Massachusetts Legislature, Brown's political platform solidified (see below for more on his political positions).

After Sen. Edward Kennedy's death 2009, Brown won the Republican primary for a seat that was thought to be a long shot for the GOP. As Brown's opponent, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, began to stumble, however, momentum began to swing in Brown's favor. In a thrilling upset on Jan. 19, 2010, Brown claimed victory. His win had immediate ramifications Capitol Hill, upending the Democrats' Congressional vice-grip of 60 majority votes, which in turn sent their health care reform plans spinning wildly out of control. House and Senate Democrats everywhere scrambled to find a way to hold onto their seats.

Brown married WCVB-TV reporter Gail Huff in 1986, and the couple has two daughters, Ayla and Arianna. Until 2010, Ayla was better known than both her parents, having been a semi-finalist on "American Idol" in 2006 and a four-year starting basketball player for Boston College. Arianna, meanwhile, competes as an equestrian and studies pre-med at Syracuse University. The family lives in Wrentham, Mass., but maintains residences in Boston and New Hampshire.

In 1978, Brown won Cosmopolitan magazine's "America's Sexiest Man" competition and appeared nude in a centerfold, but was not fully exposed. Brown is an accomplished triathlon and duathlon athlete, as well as a champion bicylist, swimmer and long-distance runner. He played basketball in high school, earning the nickname "Downtown Scotty Brown" thanks to a devastating outside jump shot. Brown and his family are members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America and worship at New England Chapel. He and his family also volunteer for an order of Cistercian Roman Catholic nuns at Mt. St. Mary’s Abbey in Wrentham.

Abortion: Brown's received the support of right-to-life groups during his 2010 Senate bid because of his stance on stem cell research. During that campaign he voiced support for a conscience-based opt-out of post-rape contraception. According to the Boston Globe, Brown authored the Women's Right to Know Act, requiring a pregnant woman to wait 24 hours before having an abortion.

Free Market: During the 2010 campaign, Brown expressed his opposition to new regulations of financial markets and proposed cutting taxes to create jobs.

Gay Rights: Brown voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman in February 2004, and in 2007, he expressed support for civil unions, but not gay marriage.

Crime: Brown has always had a tough-on-crime position, voting in November 2002 to implement the death penalty in Massachusetts. In 2009, he emerged as a leader in reforming the state's sex-offender laws.

Energy: During the special election race in 2010, Brown referred to Democratic cap-and-trade proposals as a national energy tax. Although he opposes the cap-and-trade system, he has supported the idea of renewable energy.

Health Care: One of the primary issues in the 2010 special election campaign was a Democratic health care reform plan that would have implemented a so-called "public option." Brown ran against the plan, and maintained that bipartisan cooperation is needed to fix America's broken health care system.

Taxes: He maintained in 2010 that the federal government should vote to make the Bush tax cuts permanent and eliminate the estate tax (often referred to as the "Death Tax"). In 2003, he voted against raising the Massachusetts income tax to offset a rising deficit, advocating instead for across-the-board spending cuts.