(Updates with details of returns in second paragraph.)
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Republican U.S. Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts released six years of federal and state income- tax returns, including 2011 figures showing he and his wife earned $510,856, and paid a quarter of that in taxes.
He and his wife, television reporter Gail Huff, contributed $16,487 last year to charity, or 3.2 percent of their total income, he said in an e-mailed statement today.
Brown upended Massachusetts politics in 2010 by winning a special election for the seat long held by Ted Kennedy in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1. This year, he faces a Democratic challenge from Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, who as an adviser to President Barack Obama helped establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Brown has portrayed himself as an everyday guy, driving a pickup truck to events, while casting Warren, 62, as a wealthy Ivy League elitist. Warren, a bankruptcy-law specialist, has countered with advertisements describing her “middle-class” upbringing in Oklahoma and attacking the incumbent as an extremist.
This year’s race will help determine whether Democrats retain their edge in the Senate, where the party is defending 21 seats in November, plus two held by independents, compared with 10 for Republicans. The Democratic caucus holds a 53-47 edge over Republicans in the chamber.
--With assistance from JoAnne Norton in Washington. Editors: Stephen Merelman, Mark Tannenbaum
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael McDonald in Boston at mmcdonald10@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net.
© Copyright 2013 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.