SALEM — She decided not to run against him, but Mayor Kim Driscoll still had a challenge for U.S. Sen. Scott Brown when he visited Salem yesterday.
While introducing him before his speech to the Chamber of Commerce, Driscoll, a former basketball player at Salem State, asked Brown, a player at Tufts University, if he was up for a game of one-on-one.
"Bring your wallet," Brown said, confident he would be on the winning end of the game and any wager on it. "Deal," Driscoll replied.
Driscoll, a rising star in the state's Democratic Party, seriously considered a political challenge to Brown but announced earlier this month that she wants to focus on the work she has to do in Salem.
"It's not every day that we have a United States senator in Salem. It certainly isn't every day that I get to introduce one, especially considering I contemplated running against him," Driscoll said at the beginning of her remarks. The line filled the Hawthorne Hotel ballroom with laughter.
"I figured I'd get the awkwardness out of the way," she said.
When he stepped to the podium, Brown highlighted his ties to Salem. His wife, television news reporter Gail Huff, used to live here. His mother worked at Salem Five bank. And Salem, Brown said, is "where I had my first run-in with the law."
He then brought up former Salem mayor and chief justice of the Massachusetts District Courts Sam Zoll. Brown credits Zoll for helping turn his life around shortly after Brown was arrested for stealing records as a 12-year-old boy.
"Judge Zoll, as you know, played just an incredible role in my life," Brown said. "Were it not for him, I absolutely would not be standing here talking to you."
Zoll is battling cancer and "not doing well," according to Brown. The senator said he intended to visit with Zoll yesterday after his scheduled stops. Brown began his day at Salem State University and later toured space that will become the downtown YMCA's Creative Arts Center.
Addressing the economy, Brown said, "we're in a financial emergency."
"We're in deep trouble," he said.
The biggest problem facing businesses is uncertainty about what the government will do next, Brown said. They are wary of a tax increase and are now restricted by too much regulation.
Before considering a tax increase, Brown said, the government needs to curb inefficient spending that is sending "hundreds of billions of dollars right out the door" and worsening an already $14.4 trillion national debt.
"We need to do something to step back from that precipice right now," he said.
The Senate's recent work, including its thorough debate and openness to compromise, has given Brown hope.
"There are people of good will in the Senate who really get it and understand that we have to work together in a bipartisan manner and come up with some realistic solutions," he said.
The Republican's visit was popular among chamber members. More than 170 attended yesterday's luncheon. The audience also included Republican state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and former state Sen. Richard Tisei, R-Wakefield. Tisei is rumored to be a possible opponent for Congressman John Tierney in 2012.
"I thought it was good," Chris Zorzy, owner of A&A Services, a Salem-based home improvement company, said after Brown's speech.
"I like that he acknowledged that everybody's got to work together, that just doesn't happen down in Washington," Zorzy said. "If they can create that reality, it would be very nice to see it get done. I hope it can be attained, but what's said here and what happens down there are two different worlds."
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