Scott Brown, the Republican candidate for the Massachusetts Senate seat up for election on Tuesday, is filing a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democratic Party over a flier claiming he’s against giving emergency contraception to rape victims.
The flier reportedly says “1,736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008. Scott Brown wants hospitals to turn them all away,” according to Greg Sargent’s blog.
Dan Winslow, counsel for the Scott Brown for U.S. Senate campaign, held a media availability at 4 p.m. Saturday to announce the criminal complaint resulting from a recent mailing paid for and sent by the Massachusetts Democratic Party, according to a press release sent out by the campaign.
Brown has taken heat from Democratic challenger Martha Coakley in the campaign because as a lawmaker in Massachusetts, he once offered an amendment that allows health care workers to opt out of giving emergency contraception to rape victims if doing so conflicts with their beliefs.
“The campaign’s rhetoric has gone from negative to malicious,” Massachusetts Republican party spokeswoman Tarah Donoghue told The Daily Caller from Brown’s weekend bus tour Saturday. “It’s outright offensive and it’s a distortion of Scott Brown’s record.”
Donoghue said the complaint will likely be filed next week because criminal complaints cannot be filed on the weekends in Massachusetts and Monday is a holiday.
The complaint is based off Chapter 56, Section 42 of Massachusetts law that states, “No person shall publish or cause to be published in any letter, circular, advertisement, poster or in any other writing any false statement in relation to any question submitted to the voters, which statement is designed to affect the vote on said question.”
Those convicted could face a fine no more than $1,000 and jail time not exceeding six months.
“There is plenty of room for the rough and tumble of politics, and sharp elbows, and spin. But the line is drawn at false statements,” Donoghue wrote in an email.
Donoghue said Massachusetts GOP chairwoman Jennifer Nassour attended Saturday’s announcements at the state GOP headquarters. The Coakley campaign did not immediately return requests for comment.
But the Coakley campaign sent out an email to the media prior to Brown’s Saturday press conference offering potential questions for members of the press to ask Brown’s campaign.
Questions, based off of the Coakley campaign’s weekend criticism of Brown over not offering health insurance to all of his campaign employees, included: How can Scott Brown justify denying health insurance coverage to even junior staffers? How much money is this scheme saving the Brown campaign?
Brown is running against Coakley in Tuesday’s special election for the Senate seat long served by Sen. Ted Kennedy until he died from brain cancer this summer.
UPDATED at 11:08 A.M on Sunday to reflect new information.