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Brown Details Wish List for State of the Union Address

What some freshman Senator from the minority party wants to hear from President Barack Obama on Wednesday when he delivers his State of the Union address would normally elicit little interest — if any at all.

But after capturing the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D) seat in stunning fashion last week in overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts, Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R) is far from a normal, junior Member of his state’s Congressional delegation.

“I want to hear that there’s going to be a real effort to solve the very real issues that are affecting people when it comes to job creation, job retention, and not lose focus on, people are hurting,— Brown told reporters late last week while on Capitol Hill for meetings with some of his new colleagues.

Brown campaigned as a conventional conservative on economic and national security issues, and vowed to be the 41st Republican vote to help the GOP sustain a filibuster that could kill health care reform. Yet the Senator-elect still walked away with the race, beating state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) by 5 points to become the first Republican to win a Senate election in Massachusetts since 1972.

The Senator-elect was conciliatory when discussing his plans to work in a bipartisan fashion to solve the nation’s problems. But Brown nonetheless indicated that he’d like to hear that Obama heeds the political and policy messages of the special election that propelled the Republican to office.

The American people, Brown said, “want good government — they want transparency back and they don’t want anymore back-room deals.—

Brown said he expects to be sworn into office this week.

“I think they need to get back to basics. People are hurting, and the one-size-fits-all health care plan wasn’t good for my state, and that’s why I was so vocally against it,— Brown said.

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