September 13, 2009 State Sen. Brown enters U.S. Senate race Play video

(NECN: Josh Brogadir, Boston, Mass.) - State Senator Scott Brown (R) is hoping to become U.S. Senator Scott Brown, throwing his hat in the ring for the vacant U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts.

The Republican made the announcement surrounded by his daughter, mother, and friends Saturday afternoon at a hotel in Boston.

He is in his third term as a state senator from Wrentham, a lawyer who previously served three terms as a state representative.

Brown gets into a race with three well known state Democrats -- Attorney General Martha Coakley, Congressmen Michael Capuano of Somerville and Stephen Lynch of South Boston.

Republican Bob Burr, a Canton selectman, said he too intends to get in the race to fill the seat vacated after nearly 47 years by the death of Senator Edward Kennedy last month.

State Senator Brown praised Kennedy for his energy and public service, while saying he often disagreed with him politically.

Brown is running on his record as a reformer who is not part of the Beacon Hill or Capitol Hill establishments and acknowledges he does not have campaign money in the bank.

"I wanted to make sure that I could run a credible, honest, hard-working, grassroots, lean and mean, intelligent, up, positive campaign and I challenge, quite frankly, my opponents to do the same. Because I can tell you that that's what I plan to do," Sen. Brown said. "If you see somebody going in the gutter, somebody else going in the gutter, then

you got to say, you know what, we have enough of that, not only on Beacon Hill, but we have enough of that in Washington."