by Jason Graziadei / I&M Senior Writer

His famous pick-up truck didn't make it to Nantucket, but U.S. Sen. Scott Brown did.

Brown, who claimed the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy in a stunning upset in January and became a national Republican superstar in the process, paid a whirlwind visit to the island with his wife and daughter last weekend, his first summer trip to Nantucket in more than 20 years.

Mixing work and play, Brown spoke at a fundraising event at the Monomoy home of Ted and Sandy Taylor, took second place in his age group at the Nantucket Triathlon on Saturday, watched his daughter Ayla perform at the Nantucket Music Festival at Children's Beach Sunday, and still found time to research the Senate's proposed financial- reform bill and reached a decision to support the legislation. The Republican from Wrentham, Mass., captured the national spotlight after his improbable victory over Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to fill Kennedy's seat, and has since become a darling of the fledgling right-wing Tea Party movement, although his backing of the financial-reform bill could put that relationship in jeopardy.

While Brown said he had made it to Nantucket several times for the annual Christmas Stroll over the years, it was his first summer visit to the island since 1988, just after his daughter was born.

"We have a picture of me carrying Ayla on Nantucket in a clothes basket," Brown said on Sunday, waiting for his daughter to take the stage. "The island, it's the same. That's the beauty of Nantucket. It's definitely more built-out and expensive to buy property, though, that's for sure."

Brown also squeezed a visit to former Boston newscaster Natalie Jacobson's Surfside home into his schedule, and attended a service at the Congregational Church on Sunday. It took a little trickery, however, to convince his wife, former WCVB reporter Gail Huff, to let him participate in the triathlon.

"I said three days ago, 'honey, there's a triathlon, I didn't know anything about it,'" said Brown, an accomplished triathlete and distance runner. "I had known about it for a month, so I threw a fast one. But it was such a wonderful event. It was great, a little hot, but the triathlon was really, really special. I'm hoping they do it again because I'm hoping to come back next year."

Leaving the famous pickup truck he used during the campaign behind in Washington - Brown said it was too expensive to take it over on the boat - Massachusetts' junior senator dished on the controversial Cape Wind project, the recent spat of negative ads running against him on television, and his thinking on the financial-reform bill that was drafted to avert another financial meltdown.

Brown said his message to the large audience that gathered in Monomoy for Saturday night's fundraiser was simple.

"I'm out there battling every day, trying to be the independent voter and thinker, I'm trying to get them talking again and get Washington working again," Brown said. "I'm going to look at each and every bill, I'm going to read it, make sure it's good for Massachusetts, it doesn't raise the deficit or increase taxes, and creates jobs."

The recent television ads which have blasted Brown's environ-mental record and contain the catchy phrase "Scott Brown, you let us down," were clearly bother-ing Brown, who has become a key swing vote in the Senate, and taken heat from both liberals and conservatives since he was sworn into office five months ago.

"I'm a constant target, and quite frankly, most of it is inaccurate," Brown said. "To think in 100 days that I'm in with big oil, I'm in with big Wall Street, I hate ducks and I hate the environment and all this other stuff, people don't believe it. It's an extension of the negative ads that were run against me during the campaign and they've never stopped. It's unheard of, the amount of negative ads being run against someone after an election.

And they're trying to influence the way I'm voting and it's not going to work." By misleading and distorting the truth, I think people know better," Brown added. "They didn't fall for it then, and they're not falling for it now."

Brown is also opposed to the siting of the Cape Wind Farm "I'm opposed to Cape Wind, to the location," Brown said. "I think it's wrong. To me, it's always been about the location. To put wind turbines in the middle of a national treasure is wrong. I'm in favor of wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, hydro, conservation, but to put wind turbines in the middle of the fishing, the scenic views, the ferry routes? There's other places to put it."

On Sunday, as Brown listened to the Dave Street Band at Children's Beach before his daughter took the stage, he still hadn't reached a decision on the financial reform bill, but already had exerted his influence by forcing Democrats to abandon a $19 billion tax on banks in conference committee. At the Tom Nevers home of John Madison, where Brown stayed on Nantucket for the weekend, he was still poring over the final 350 pages of the bill, he said. By Monday, Brown's office had released a statement indicating that he would vote in favor the legislation, joining two other Re-publicans whose support will likely secure its passage.

"The banks aren't going to write a check," Brown said on Sunday. "It would be you and everyone else here who would pay for it. You think the banks are going to write a $19 billion check? They'll just pass it through. It's obvious what they'd do. Checking accounts, savings, ATM fees, it would shrink the ability to lend. I would have liked to have them pay for it with (spending) cuts, but the fact is they're using the remaining TARP money, which I consider money al-ready in the system, not adding to the deficit."

Brown concluded by stating that Massachusetts' recovery from the economic recession remained fragile, and pulling the state out of the depths will require a combined effort at all levels of government, and in the private sector.

"It's a joint effort between the local municipalities, the state government and federal government, and private businesses," Brown said. "If you keep raising taxes and creating more regulations, and making everything bigger, you're not creating jobs, and jobs are the key to economic recovery."