Although state Sen. Scott Brown is the Republican in the Massachusetts Senate special election, he sought to play off the Kennedy family’s political legacy in his first television ad in the race to fill the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D) seat.

The 30-second ad, launched Wednesday, begins with a black and white video of President John F. Kennedy giving a speech calling for tax cuts and merges into a video of Brown reading from the same speech to emphasize the need for lower taxes today.

It is running statewide on both cable and network television.

Martha Coakley (D), Brown’s opponent in the Jan. 19 election, has been on the air for months. But unlike Coakley, Brown did not face a contested primary. He also has raised far less money.

Hoping to pull in some more cash for the final stretch of the general election, the Brown campaign also circulated a fundraising letter penned by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R).

Romney touts Brown’s credentials as a fiscal conservative while also noting, in bold, that he would become the critical 41st Republican vote against the health care bill when it comes back to the Senate for final passage. Democrats passed the bill on Christmas Eve with 60 votes, just enough to overcome the prospect of a GOP filibuster.

A Brown victory, however, would be a huge upset — Coakley, the state’s attorney general, is the heavy favorite in the matchup given Massachusetts’ Democratic lean.