February 4, 2013 — Industry and leaders must insist that candidates for the Kerry seat stake out their positions regarding NOAA’s actions and recognize that the future of the fishing fleets are job issues essential to our community economies.
The news that Scott Brown would be foregoing another run for an abbreviated term in the U.S. Senate should not have come as a surprise.
As Brown himself suggested, the idea of running a third U.S. Senate campaign in four years after winning in 2010 over Martha Coakley then bowing to challenger Elizabeth Warren last November would exact an enormous toll. And let’s not forget he could have faced four campaigns in five years, if he were to win this June’s race and then sought re-election when the seat comes up again in 2014. That just isn’t realistic, financially, physically, emotionally or otherwise.
Yet the absence of Brown — who, during his 2010-2012 time in the Senate emerged as stalwart advocate for the fishing industry, and who made several visits to Gloucester to hear fishermen’s concerns and bring them to D.C. — leaves the industry in a vacuum at a time when it needs the most help.
Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Times