A war has been waging. These battles are not fought against foreign enemies over vast oceans. No, this showdown is occurring in a totally unique arena: our small state of Massachusetts. The prize is an open seat in the United States Senate, and the contenders are Elizabeth Warren, of Cambridge, and the incumbent, Scott Brown, from Wrentham.

Brown was born in 1959 and grew up in Wrentham, graduating from Wakefield High School in 1977. He then attended Tufts University, graduating Cum Laude, and went on to get a degree from Boston College Law. He and his wife of 26 years, news reporter Gail Huff, live in Wrentham and have two daughters. Brown began his political career  in 1992, when he was elected property assessor of Wrentham, and in 1995, he successfully ran for the Wrentham Board of Selectmen. Brown won an election in 1998 for the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He held this seat until March, 2004, when he won a special election to replace the seat of Democrat Cheryl Jacques in the state senate. Brown won reelection thrice, rising again in the political world in 2009 when he announced his candidacy for the United States Senate. He faced little competition in this 2010 election, winning both the primary and general elections by a landslide.

On the other end of the political spectrum, Elizabeth Warren was born in 1961 in Oklahoma City. Warren was offered a debate scholarship to George Washington University in Washington, D.C.when she was sixteen, leaving after two years to marry her high school boyfriend. After staying at home with her daughter, Amelia, for two years, Warren enrolled in Rutgers School of Law and became pregnant with their second child, Alexander, before graduating. Elizabeth and Jim divorced in 1978, and she then married Harvard professor Bruce Mann in 1980. In the 1970s through 1990s, Elizabeth taught at many universities, including Rutgers School of Law, University of Houston Law Center, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania Law School, and, in 1995, Harvard Law School. In that same year she began advising the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, and went on to become a member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion for four years leading up to her announcement of her candidacy for the Senate.

The race has been tight, with public opinion bouncing back and forth as the media delves further and further into the candidates’ past and personal lives. The Brown campaign has been up in arms attacking Warren for claiming Native American heritage when applying to professor jobs at universities. Brown made his frustrations clear in the October first televised debate when he said “She claimed that she was a Native American, a person of color, and as you can see, she’s not.” The public opinion has also been skewed by this scandal. Scituate High School sophomore Colby Comeau said that Warren could have had his support, but lost it because she “lied, straight out”.

Warren’s responsive television ads have stated that she did not benefit from her heritage, and that she merely recorded what she was told, not taking into question what her family had told her. Scituate High School History Department Chair Mr. Swett, said of the Brown campaign that it’s a mistake to be “talking so much about her Native American heritage which probably won’t be an issue that’s important”.

Brown has also been attacked for his brief modeling stint in 1982, when he won the Cosmopolitan Magazine “America’s Sexiest Man” contest, posing nude for an issue. Brown used the money he won to help pay for law school. But most are objecting to Brown for more ideological reasons. Junior James Robotham said that “Brown knows nothing about tax policy and economics”. Having been an economic expert for forty years, Warren has more experience in this subject. She also has government experience, helping to found the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, which helps make sure that mortgages, student loans and credit cards are handled fairly by banks for American  consumers.

Mr. Swett believes that Warren could improve her campaign by “flaunting her political experience.” However, this does not measure up to Brown’s twenty year political career.

As of October eleventh, Warren was ahead in a Rasmussen Report poll by a mere two points, but with the margin of error, this election will be a toss-up. In less than a month, the battle will be over. Massachusetts can only hope that their senate seat is filled by the best leader possible.