The past five years have been a whirlwind for Republican Scott Brown.
Once trailing Democrat Martha Coakley in the race to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts by 30 points, Brown rode a wave of Tea Party fervor and anti-establishment sentiment to defeat Coakley by a five-point margin. The loss of the liberal lion's seat hit Democrats hard, but the party knew it would have a much better chance of ousting Brown in 2012, when the seat's full six-year term was up for election. Democrats scored a major coup when progressive champion and Wall Street foe Elizabeth Warren tossed her hat into the ring. After a hard-faught campaign, Warren bested Brown by eight points.
Few observers expected Brown to abandon electoral politics upon leaving office. He joined a corporate law firm and scored a gig as a Fox News contributor, ensuring he'd remain a familiar face to the conservative activists who'd prove crucial in his future endeavors.
Speculation surrounding his political ambitions never lurked far beneath the surface. Brown passed on the opportunity to run in the special election to replace Sen. John Kerry, who left to become President Obama's secretary of state. A far better prize awaited him on Beacon Hill. After eight years of Democratic control under Gov. Deval Patrick, observers had several to believe that Bay Staters would return the governorship to a Republican in 2014. (And they did, narrowly electing businessman Charlie Baker over Coakley.) Indeed, some speculated that the very reason Brown passed on the race to fill Kerry's seat was that he'd rather run for governor.
Instead, Brown made the bizarre decision to carpetbag over to New Hampshire, where his family has a vacation home, and challenge popular Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Running to the right on terrorism, immigration, and Obamacare, Brown was hardly the moderate candidate he sought to convey to voters in his 2012 race against Warren. While his fearmongering increased his poll numbers, it couldn't derail Shaheen, who defeated Brown 52 to 48 percent.
Now, according to the Boston Herald, Brown is set to rejoin his old colleagues at Fox. According to the Herald, Brown's first appearance on the network will be Tuesday; he'll be the "One Lucky Guy" on a revolving panel of four women and one man discussing the day's stories. The Herald notes that rejoining Fox "keeps him in the public eye and on the radar should he decide that his political career isn’t over." The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America points out that Fox has rehired GOP contributors like Liz Cheney, Angela McGlowan, and Pete Snyder after their campaigns have ended.
So until Brown moves just a bit west so he can challenge Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy in 2016, he's safe at Murdoch's network.
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