Facing a competitive election in 2012, Sen. Scott Brown Tuesday decried the partisanship and gridlock of Washington, D.C., in an effort to cast himself as a moderate in search of compromise.

Taking to the Senate floor, Brown said that President Barack Obama's jobs bill is a start, but parts that can pass in Congress, like a payroll tax cut and tax incentive to hire veterans, should be presented in the Senate for a vote immediately.

The current proposal from the President isn't going to pass either chamber if it relies entirely on tax increases to pay for it, Brown said. I urge the majority leader to bring a jobs bill to the floor that can actually get 60 votes and also has a chance at passing the House.

Brown' speech follows a recent UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll showing him in a statistical dead heat with Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law professor behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Even in deep-Democratic Massachusetts, there is a bloc of unaffiliated voters that beats enrollment in both parties that Brown is attempting to reach to hold onto his seat.

He said that many in Washington, D.C., forget that we're Americans first and that elected officials should be problem solvers instead of partisans.

The voters of this country sent us here to find ways in which we can all agree to move our country forward, to make things better, Brown said. Governing wisely doesn't mean spending all of our time politicking, make the other side uncomfortable by voting a certain way or taking uncomfortable votes [and] putting those votes in the bank for petty attacks during the election season.

Brown gave his speech on the day Warren will appear at the first debate of the Democratic primary in which she holds an overwhelming lead, according to the UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll.

Warren faces Alan Khazei, who founded a national service organization, activist Bob Massie, state Rep. Thomas Conroy, attorney Marisa DeFranco and engineer Herb Robinson. Newton Mayor Setti Warren, a Democrat, recently dropped his Senate bid.

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