5:25 p.m. | Updated BOSTON - The fund-raising competition between Senator Scott P. Brown and Elizabeth Warren, his Democratic challenger, may have finally jumped the shark.
Both campaigns have used the flimsiest of excuses to send out fund-raising appeals in their ferociously competitive Massachusetts Senate race. Their efforts have made their race the most expensive in the country in this election cycle.
Now the Warren campaign has taken creative fund-raising to new heights. On Friday, the Warren campaign manager, Mindy Myers, sent out an appeal prompted by nothing more than a Brown appeal.
This may be a first in fund-raising. The Warren e-mail reprints the Brown e-mail in its entirety - even as it denigrates Ms. Warren.
The reprint is so complete that it starts with the same subject line at the top (“Character counts and issues matterâ€) and goes all the way to the bottom, where it helpfully includes the “donate†button on which to click to make a contribution to Mr. Brown.
The point, according to Ms. Myers' letter, is to show how “desperate†Mr. Brown is.
“Scott Brown's poll numbers are plummeting,†Ms. Myers' e-mail begins. “He lost the third debate on Wednesday.â€
“Want to see the email of someone who's desperate?†her letter goes on. “Read below. Thanks for all you're doing. Keep it up!†It then includes a “donate†button to send contributions to Ms. Warren.
But if donors are sick of appeals from the Warren campaign, the Warren campaign could not have made it easier for them to turn around and contribute to Mr. Brown.
Here is the Brown letter, as reprinted in Ms. Myers' e-mail:
Friends,
Character counts and issues matter. You know all about Professor Warren's elusive heritage, evasive answers and defensive double-talk that strike at the heart of her character.
Where she stands on the issues is just as important, and Elizabeth Warren always checks the box for bigger government and higher taxes.
Voters saw us side-by-side at the Springfield debate and saw that Elizabeth Warren's solution to every problem is higher taxes.
If she wins, you lose because she's for new and higher taxes on Social Security, Medicare and small businesses. She talks about ‘investing,' but what she means is taking your hard-earned dollars and spending them on new, big government programs.
I have added up her tax hikes and they will cost us $3.4 trillion over the next ten years. Talk about punishing taxes! They will hit you and our economy like a sledgehammer. I ne ed your help to get the word out by contributing online right now.
There are only 25 days left so let's get right to it. Professor Warren's campaign is flush with campaign cash from the national liberals and Hollywood elite who agree with her and think we need higher taxes.
Will you back me up? Help me raise the funds I urgently need to convey just how dangerously out of touch Professor Warren is on the serious issues of the day. Your online help is vital to our victory. Please contribute $20, $50, or $100 or whatever amount you can.
Sincerely,
Scott Brown
United States Senator
The People's Seat
Mr. Brown may want to send Ms. Warren a contribution as thanks for disseminating his appeal much farther than he ever expected it would go.
UPDATE: It turns out that Scott Brown sent out a fundraising e-mail in July that included an entire fundraising e-mail from Elizabeth Warren. One difference is that the Warren e-mail t hat the Brown campaign included does not attack Mr. Brown quite as strongly as the Brown fundraising appeal that the Warren campaign sent out Friday. Nonetheless, both campaigns have clearly been taking unusual steps to separate their donors from their wallets.
“Friends,†the Brown e-mail from July begins. “As President Obama seeks to walk back his “you didn't build that†comments, Elizabeth Warren, who was the first to express that sentiment, is doubling-down. Check out the email she sent yesterday stating unequivocally that she “meant what she said.â€
After a lengthy introduction, the Brown e-mail then includes this Warren e-mail, replete with a video that the Warren camp believes shows Ms. Warren at her most passionate and articulate and that the Brown campaign calls a “rant†that has alienated voters.
Last August, I stood in a living room in Andover and talked about why our country faced a massive deficit and what it would ta ke to move us forward as a nation.
I'm proud of what I said. I meant every single word of it.
I said, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own.†I praised the people who did get rich. I said, “You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea, God Bless!†But I asked those who make it big to invest in the next generation of kids so they will have a chance too.
We don't know who is going to have the next big idea in America.
But we're pretty sure they're going to need employees who can read and write. They're going to need power to keep the lights on and clean water and functioning sewers to keep going. They're going to need roads and bridges to move their goods to market or bring customers to their store. And they're going to need police officers and firefighters to keep their businesses safe.
That's what makes America great. We make the investments together - to put the conditions in place so that businesses can flourish and create more opportunities for all of us. And it keeps going forward. When we make it, all of us have an obligation to invest in creating the conditions so the next kid can get ahead, and the kid after that, and the kid after that.
I believe in small businesses. My brother started a small business. My daughter started a small business. My aunt started a small businessâ€"and that's where I worked when I was a teenager. I've seen up close and personal how hard small business owners work and how much they risk to make their businesses succeed.
Right now, Washington's rigged for the big corporations who can afford armies of lobbyists and lawyers - not America's small businesses. If Republicans like Scott Brown and Mitt Romney have their way, the system is going to stay rigged for the big guys.
The Republicans have their vision for the future. It says, “I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own.â€
That's not the American Dream. That's not how we build a future for ourselves and our children. We build a future together.
Thank you for being a part of this,
Elizabeth
