Earlier this week, Sen. Scott Brown made a consequential and costly decision for his campaign: to release his recent tax returns and to challenge Elizabeth Warren to do the same.
Talk about a major blunder.
First, it turns out Brown has a haircut problem. The Boston Herald reported that last year, Brown took a deduction of $1401 for hair, make up and grooming. Wow. This is something that will haunt Brown for the remainder of his campaign. Voters don’t much like career politicians who claim to be earnest everymen while spending so much money on their vanity and grooming.
Second, it turns out that Scott Brown and his wife made $2.5 million over the past six years, far more than the Brown campaign and the Massachusetts Republican Party have let on in all their vitriolic and over the top advertisements attacking Warren’s own income. What’s more, Brown’s income has skyrocketed since he entered public service — news that has caught the eye of pretty much every Massachusetts paper.
Earlier this year, Brown claimed his income was “not a heck of a lot. I mean, you know, I don’t make a heck of a lot.” He will have a tough time explaining that given the latest revelations about his income and the fact that he has a healthy place in the top 1 percent of American earners.
Brown’s latest problems were put on display with a new Web ad the Massachusetts Democratic Party posted early this morning, highlighting the enormous, $675 price tag for his famous barn jacket, the six properties he owns, and his newfound “A-list” stature in the Washington social circuit.
Brown is likely to find it difficult to put this toothpaste back in the tube.
