But political experts familiar with his time in the legislature say Brown was not always a friend to Democrats. He more often than not voted with Republicans on fiscal and social issues—by some accounts up to 90 percent of the time on tax-related measures—and was generally supportive of Republican Governor Mitt Romney.
That split has carried over into Brown’s time in Congress. Critics have pointed out that on high-profile issues, the Republican senator votes with his party up to 70 percent of the time.
Brown voted with Republicans in support of the controversial Keystone oil pipeline and refused to endorse any Democratic budget proposal. He also parted with Democratic colleagues to vote against the DREAM Act and for an extension of Bush-era tax cuts.
For all the bipartisan promises he made during his 2010 campaign, Brown also promised to vote against President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill, a promise he upheld in voting for its repeal.
Brown’s own legislative projects during his brief term were modest and often apolitical. He introduced the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act to end insider trading in the House and Senate earlier this year. As he did during his time in the State Senate, Brown also worked to introduce veterans legislation. In addition to the Armed Services Committee, Brown sits on the Homeland Security Committee, and Veteran’s Affairs Committee.
“He’s probably not the best Republican vote in the Senate, but he is a Republican vote,” Hale said.
BACK TO THE TRAIL
As he has toured the state picking up endorsements from Democratic politicians in anticipation of the election, Brown has played up his bipartisanship and played down his Republican ties. He has repeatedly dodged questions on the campaign trail about his former colleague Romney, whose campaign shares management with Brown’s.
Instead, Brown has embraced Obama time and again, including footage of the Democratic president in advertisements and plugging anecdotes about their work together into debates and speeches.
Brown’s only tweet during the Oct. 16 presidential debate tied the senator to the president.
“Proud to have worked with Pres Obama on Hire a Hero to promote Veterans’ jobs and get an invite to the White House for bill signing,” it read.
In debates, Brown has consistently highlighted his progressive stances on women’s issues and education funding. Brown is pro-choice and has disagreed with Republicans over their proposals for across the board federal budget cuts.
Warren has not been shy to snap back, pointing out inconsistencies between Brown’s campaign statements and his voting record on women’s issues, tax policy, and energy policy.
Democrats have used ads in an attempt to tie Brown to his party—a strategy political analysts say could be effective and will likely be necessary to defeat the popular senator.
“The problem he has is now he has a record. And the record has two parts of it: the bipartisan part and partisan part,” said Democratic political consultant Michael Goldman. Promises that worked in 2010 against Coakley do not hold up in the face of legislative evidence, he added.
But Brown is a smart campaigner. Even after Warren’s success in the polls and Brown’s attacks on her character, Brown’s favorability ratings have remained high at 54 percent, according to a recent Boston Globe poll. In other words, political experts say, he has been able to keep himself largely above the partisan and personal fight he has picked with Warren.
Brown plans to spend his final days on the campaign trail touring the state by bus.
He will begin in his childhood hometown of Wakefield and end the weekend-long trip back in Wrentham, his current home and the city where he launched his career as a citizen legislator years ago. He will shift away from attack ads, Brown’s campaign says, as the Senator tried one last time to convince voters he puts “people over party.”
—Staff writer Nicholas P. Fandos can be reached at nicholasfandos@college.harvard.edu.