RAW DATA: Scott Brown Biography

Scott Brown (R)

AGE: 50; born Sept. 12, 1959

EDUCATION: B.A. from Tufts University, 1981, J.D. from Boston College Law School, 1985

CAREER: Wrentham selectman, 1995-1998; State Rep. 1999-2004; State Senate 2004-present. Serves on Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure; Joint Committee on Education; Joint Committee on Election Laws; Joint Committee on Higher Education; Joint Committee on Public Safety; and Homeland Security Joint Committee on Veterans & Federal Affairs. Massachusetts Army National Guard, 1979-present, currently holds rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

FAMILY: Lives in Wrentham with his wife, Gail Huff. The couple has two daughters in college, Ayla and Arianna.

Brown grew up in Wakefield, Mass., and had a tough childhood. His parents divorced when he was a baby, and each remarried three times. He spent his youth living with various relatives and getting into trouble, the New York Times reported.

Brown reportedly said that he was caught for stealing records as a 12-year-old, and that an encounter with a judge helped send him on the right path.

Brown was a basketball player in high school and went on to Tufts University. As an undergraduate he joined the Massachusetts National Guard (where he still serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps), all while reportedly singing and acting in campus productions and picking up modeling work.

In 1982, Brown, as a 22-year-old law student, was named ''America's Sexiest Man'' by Cosmopolitan magazine. The title netted him $1,000 and a photo shoot, including one picture in which Mr. Brown was covered only by his strategically placed arm. Brown said the money helped him pay for law school, according to the New York Times.

In August 1983, he completed airborne training at Fort Bragg, N.C., National Guard records show. Brown returned to Boston College that fall and received his law degree in 1985.

Brown's political career started in 1992 when he was elected assessor in Wrentham, the Massachusetts town where he and his family live. Three years later, he served as a selectman, and was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1998. In March 2004 he was elected tothe State Senate in a special election to fill the seat of Cheryl Jacques.

During six terms in the Legislature, three each in the House and Senate, Brown has a modest record of legislative initiatives, but he has carved out a niche as a leading advocate for veterans, colleagues on both sides of the aisle said.

As a legislator, he has served on the Veterans and Federal Affairs Committee, the Hidden Wounds of War Commission, and the Governor's Task Force on Returning Veterans. He lists among his achievements his authorship of a 2007 law that created a check-off box on state income tax forms for veterans to indicate whether they served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The state uses the information to notify veterans of available services and benefits, including the "Welcome Home Bonus" that provides $1,000 for those returning from active duty in Afghanistan or Iraq.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2006. Despite his long career, Brown, as a judge advocate, has never been in a unit sent to a combat zone such as Iraq or Afghanistan.

Brown did brief assignments in Paraguay in 2005 and in Kazakhstan in 2007. In Paraguay, he was part of an effort with US diplomats to raise awareness of American principles of justice, including cases involving military personnel, according to the Boston Globe. In Kazakhstan, he said he spent a week on a disaster, terrorism, and emergency preparedness exercise with military and civilian personnel from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and three former Soviet republics, the newspaper reported.

Brown was the landslide winner of the December 2009 Republican contest, with 89 percent of the vote; Jack E. Robinson, a businessman, garnered 11 percent.