This past Friday, state Senator Scott Brown dropped off 11,500 signatures at the Secretary of State’s office, the first portion of the 17,000 he needs to put his name on the ballot left empty by the late Ted Kennedy. The winner of this election will fill the position of Senator until a Senate race can be held in November of 2010.

Brown is currently a State Senator who represents Wayland. He is one of only 5 Republicans in the 40 member Massachusetts State Senate. If Brown were to win this election, he would be the first Republican to serve in the Senate on behalf of Massachusetts since Ed Brook was elected in 1972.

Brown has served in the State Senate since 1998, and, prior to his election, he served on the Wrentham Board of Selectmen. Before Scott Brown became involved in politics he worked as an attorney with a specialty in family law. He attended Tufts University and received his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1985.

Brown is known for is his work in veteran’s affairs and efforts towards reform of the states sex offender laws to protect victims. He is also a 29-year member of the Massachusetts National Guard and holds the rank of Lt. Colonel.

One of the controversies surrounding Brown centers around the remarks he made to King Phillip Regional High School students when he went to their school to give a speech in 2007. Some of the students there had made a Facebook group Brown claimed was made to harass both he and his daughter Ayla, who had been a finalist on American Idol. He read aloud some of the remarks made and named the students who had made them. Brown was supposed to be there to give a speech about gay marriage, which he opposes. Another controversy is Brown’s nude centerfold in a 1982 issue of Cosmopolitan. He was 22 at the time, and the magazine named him “America’s Sexiest Man.”

Brown joins candidates Bob Burr, a Republican on the Board of Selectmen representing Canton, Steve Pagliuca a private equity investor running as a Democrat, Alan Khazei a political organizer also running as a Democrat, and Martha Coakley, a Democrat and Massachusetts’ state Attorney General. The party primary elections will be held December 8, and the general election will take place on January 19, 2010.

A bill recently passed by lawmakers allowed Governor Patrick to appoint an interim senator until an election can be held. Patrick appointed Paul Kirk, a former aide to Sen. Kennedy and also the former head of the Democratic National Committee. Ted Kennedy himself wanted this law so that Massachusetts would have full representation in the Senate during the health care debate. Until 2004, the law was that the Governor would appoint the new Senator if these circumstances arose. The law was changed during the 2004 presidential election because Democratic legislators were concerned that if John Kerry won, Mitt Romney – who was Governor at the time – would appoint a Republican to fill his vacated Senate seat.

Brown’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.