McCain joins Brown, Berwick’s new ad, and more

Or, at least, featured in an ad for Don Berwick’s gubernatorial campaign. In an e-mail circulated this week by Boston-based C.P. Casting, which said it was auditioning kids for a Berwick ad, the casting call was put out for a “STEVEN, 8-11 years old, short dark hair” and a “MARTHA, 8-11 years old, blonde . . . [w]ould need BANGS or willing to have hair cut into bangs.”

Presumably, Berwick’s ad will be used to depict him as the proverbial “adult in the room,” a policy expert unlike two quarrelsome career politicians. According to the e-mail, the all-day shoot was scheduled for Friday in Newton. E-mail kidsforberwick@gmail.com for details.

Former Westfield State University president Evan S. Dobelle, whose chutzpah is almost as renowned as his propensity to spend other people’s money, surprised even his hard-bitten former colleagues when he submitted a new bill for reimbursement last month.

Eight months after he resigned amid reports of his extravagant spending, the school received a $273.48 bill for a car he rented from July 24 to 27.

The charges were incurred in San Francisco at around the same time that his all-male club, Bohemian Grove, was holding its summer encampment in Monte Rio, Calif.

It was also around the same time that state Inspector General Glenn Cunha issued a scathing report accusing Dobelle of squandering hundreds of thousands of dollars of school funds on personal expenses, including several trips to California, timed to coincide with his twice yearly sojourns to Bohemian Grove.

In 2010, for example, Dobelle charged $2,841.27 to the school’s fund-raising foundation, though he did no school business and spent the time at Bohemian Grove.

“In short,” wrote Cunha, “Dobelle fraudulently arranged to have the Foundation provide a . . . subsidy for a vacation, and the Foundation received nothing in return.”

Westfield State officials, who failed to curb Dobelle’s spending when he was their boss, contested the new bill with Enterprise rental car and say they will not be required to pay.

There’s nothing strange about two former senators being scheduled to speak together at a forum in California.

What’s unusual: when one of them could be a month out from a contested election on the other side of the country.

Republican Scott Brown is set to participate in a forum in the Golden State with Joseph I. Lieberman on Oct. 1. That’s not long before the Nov. 4 New Hampshire election in which Brown is vying to unseat Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat.

Brown is set to participate in the evening event — part of a “Newsmakers” series — at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Oct. 1.

Asked via e-mail this week whether Brown still planned to attend the event and whether he was being paid for it, Elizabeth Guyton, a Brown spokeswoman, had no comment.

The Globe asked the Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation, a group organizing the talk, if Brown was being compensated and, if so, how much. Gary McManis, a vice president with Keppler Speakers, a speakers bureau, told the Globe that he does not discuss contractual terms.

McManis did confirm Brown’s appearance and said the former Massachusetts senator had agreed to it in December of 2013.

“Scott Brown is a man of his word and he’s going to show up to do it,” McManis said.

McManis said Brown and Lieberman would discuss topics such as dysfunction in Washington and challenges facing the country.

Brown spoke at a Las Vegas hedge fund conference after he launched his Granite State Senate bid. The Globe reported he got $20,000 for that appearance.

He faces a GOP primary, which he is expected to win, on Sept. 9.

DERRY, N.H. — Senator John McCain, whose town hall-fueled 2000 and 2008 New Hampshire GOP presidential primary wins etched him into Granite State political lore, was greeted triumphantly this week when he joined Scott Brown for a town hall campaign event.

Brown, running to unseat Senator Jeanne Shaheen, introduced him warmly, and McCain stood before an audience of about 200 in a high school auditorium, looking very much at home.

McCain, Republican of Arizona, joked with Brown that the former Massachusetts senator did not have to mention McCain had run for president.

Then he deployed an old chestnut.

“After I lost, I slept like a baby,” McCain said. “Sleep two hours. Wake up and cry. Sleep two hours. Wake up and cry.”

The audience loved it.

Before the current and former senators began taking questions from the crowd, McCain warned the people before him he had used the joke he was about to tell “probably a thousand times” in New Hampshire.

He began by asking for the audience’s sympathy for the families of the state of Arizona.

Then he began reciting a list of Arizona politicians. Senator Barry Goldwater ran for president. Representative Morris Udall ran for president. Governor Bruce Babbitt ran for president. He, John McCain, ran for president.

A beat.

“Arizona may be the only state in America,” he said, “where mothers don’t tell their children that some day they can grow up and be president of the United States.”

Lots of laughs — and no groans — were audible.

This week’s award for the most unusual campaign event goes to Andrew Hemingway, a Republican running for governor in New Hampshire, whose supporters gathered at the Londonderry Fish & Game Club in Litchfield over the weekend to celebrate the Second Amendment.

Hemingway addressed the crowd not from atop a soapbox but standing on a box of ammunition. Among the activities: a “Battle of the Sexes Shoot-Out,” target competitions, trap and skeet shooting, and more.

Participants could bring their own firearms or use the club’s — ammo was on sale.

Raffle prizes included everything from women’s pink safety glasses to a premium buck knife. Top prize: a custom AR-15 rifle.

And, according to the photos posted on Facebook, amid the shooting celebration, there were also balloon animals and face-painting for kids.

Governor Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire won a prize she probably wasn’t hoping for this week: a determination from the FiveThirtyEight website that she is the second-most boring governor in America.

The writers looked at recent public opinion polls and tallied which governors received the highest number of “no opinion/don’t care/don’t know” responses.

Hassan, according to the writers, is second only to Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi when it comes to boring. (For the record, Massachusetts’ own Deval Patrick is No. 22.)

The ranking raises a perplexing question: Is it more boring to top the list of most boring governors — or to come in second?