Editor’s note: This article was published by Seacoast Media Group’s sister newspaper, The Cape Cod Times, on Friday, Oct. 11.

State Sen. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, said this week that then-state Sen. Scott Brown called him unelectable after Ross voted to keep a proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment off the ballot, according to The Sun Chronicle newspaper.

Ross told The Sun Chronicle editorial board on Thursday that Brown said “you’re through” in a telephone call shortly after the June 2007 vote. Brown voted in favor of putting the proposal on the ballot.

The State House News Service reported at the time that Ross was one of nine lawmakers who previously had supported putting the proposal on the ballot but changed their position at a Constitutional Convention held during a joint session of the Legislature.

The action preserved gay marriage rights in the only state where it was legal at the time. At the time, Ross was a state representative.

Republicans were apparently infuriated with Ross because he was the deciding vote in keeping the anti-gay-marriage measure off the ballot, Ross told the Sun Chronicle.

“This is ancient history,” Elizabeth Guyton, communications director for Brown’s New Hampshire U.S. Senate campaign said Friday. “Scott wanted the people to decide the issue, not the courts. He’s moved on.”

Brown is in a tight race for a U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire against incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. New Hampshire approved gay marriage in 2009 via a bill passed by both its House and Senate and signed into law by then Gov. John Lynch.

In 2010, Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate in special election to fill out the remainder of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s term. Brown subsequently lost his seat to Democrat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the 2012 election.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, condemned Brown in a statement Friday.

“Scott Brown’s despicable threat against a fellow Massachusetts Republican may become a reality for his own political career,” said Marty Rouse, HRC’s national field director, according to the statement. “When he loses in November to New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, he’ll have lost in two different states, two elections in a row, to two different women. The people of New Hampshire will be telling Scott Brown, ‘you’re through.’”

Brown’s communications director asked the Times to contact Ross’ chief of staff, Greg Casey, who sent the following statement from Ross: “My words are being twisted and misrepresented. Scott Brown was simply advising me to explain my vote and why I voted the way I did. He didn’t threaten me in any way. Scott is a mentor and a long-time friend, and someone who I think very highly of.”

Craig Borges, Sun Chronicle managing editor, said Brown would not comment on Ross’ comments Thursday following the editorial board, which was attended by five people including, four members of the editorial board and a reporter.

“We didn’t say it was a threat,” Borges said this evening. “Our story says (Brown) said, “you’re through,” and hung up on him.”