A day before he formally unveils his Republican challenge to US Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, John Loughlin is using Facebook to play up comparisons with Scott Brown's upset victory in Massachusetts. As Ted Nesi reports at Providence Business News:

Loughlin’s Facebook pitch references Republican U.S. Sen.-elect Scott Brown’s upset victor over Martha Coakley to win the seat held by Kennedy’s father, the late Edward M. Kennedy, for more than four decades. “Could this be the next Kennedy seat to become the People’s Seat?” the advertisement asks.

The question of "Who will be the next Scott Brown?" has resounded since the Wrentham Republican defeated Coakley. Then again, this bit of recent news contrasts with descriptions of Brown as an arch-independent, truck-driving everyday guy:

In a six-day span just before the US Senate election, Republican Scott Brown collected nearly $450,000 from donors who work at financial companies, a sign the industry is prepared to spend heavily in the upcoming midterm elections to beat back new controls and taxes President Obama wants to impose.

The donations, from hundreds of financial executives, far exceeded what Brown received from doctors and others in the health care industry in the final days of the campaign. While Brown saw donations from all quarters explode in mid-January, as polls showed him closing fast on opponent Martha Coakley, the donations from financial workers coincided with several key developments that would affect their companies.