Scott Brown’s Senate website featured language lifted from Elizabeth Dole

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is fending off allegations of plagiarism after it was revealed that portions of his congressional website were lifted verbatim from the website of former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.).

A welcome message signed with Brown’s name at the bottom was taken word-for-word from Dole’s website and used on the introduction to the student resources section of Brown’s site.

{mosads}Brown is claiming a inadvertent error, but the gaffe has been seized by Democrats as an example of questionable integrity and political incompetence.

“From an early age, I was taught that success is measured not in material accumulations, but in service to others,” part of the message on Brown’s site reads. “I was encouraged to join causes larger than myself, to pursue positive change through a sense of mission, and to stand up for what I believe.”

The passage originally comes from a speech Dole delivered, but she added it to her office website, which later became a template for Brown’s after he won a special election in January 2010 and had to quickly pull together a Senate operation.

Incoming members of Congress frequently use the websites of outgoing members as a template for what components they need for their site, but change and personalize the language. 

Brown’s office said that should have occurred in this instance, but that it was accidentally left unchanged due to staff error, not plagiarism.

“During construction of the site, the content on this particular page was inadvertently transferred without being rewritten. It was a staff level oversight which we regret and has been corrected,” said Brown spokesman John Donnelly.

Brown’s website was changed to remove the copied material once it was brought to his staff’s attention by The Boston Globe, which first reported the news.

But a comparison of archived screenshots of Brown’s and Dole’s websites shows that Brown’s staff made at least minor modifications to remove Dole-related references before leaving it on what became the digital public face of Brown’s Senate office.

For instance, Dole’s site read “Welcome to the Dole Campus – a Web Site dedicated to students! No matter what your age, it’s so important to be active in our country’s democratic process.”

Brown’s read “Welcome! No matter what your age, it’s so important to be active in our country’s democratic process.”

“A Message from Elizabeth” was also changed to “A Message from Scott.”

The identical passages were brought to light by American Bridge 21st Century, a super-PAC that works to elect Democrats and has targeted Brown in the past.

“It brings into question how genuine he is as a candidate. He’ll say whatever he can to get reelected,” said Chris Harris, the PAC’s spokesman.

Brown, who is popular in Massachusetts despite it being a heavily Democratic state, has seen his path to reelection get trickier now that Elizabeth Warren is in the race for the Democratic nomination to unseat him. A former Obama administration official, Warren entered the contest with heavy support from national Democratic groups, and outraised Brown two-to-one her first fundraising quarter as a candidate.

Both Warren’s campaign and the Massachusetts Democratic Party are remaining publicly quiet about the website gaffe.