July 18, 2011
With Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief enforcer now the official nominee to permanently run the agency, interim leader Elizabeth Warren says a run for Massachusetts Senate is on her radar.
“Massachusetts does beckon, in that it’s my home,” Warren when asked about the election by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday. “I need to do that thinking from home . . . not from Washington.”
Warren added that she first wants to “step back” and regroup after many strenuous months working to organize the agency. At the top of her list – a trip with her grandson to Legoland.
Warren is “she is getting ready” for a Senate campaign, a Democrat insider in Washington told POLITICO last week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has also reportedly spoken with Warren about the election, according to MSNBC.com. Many Democrats view Warren as their best chance to unseat Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who was elected in a special election after the death of long-time senator Ted Kennedy.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is circulating a draft petition to encourage Warren to run.
“Paul Wellstone used to say he could use ten more progressives in the Senate — ‘or one Elizabeth Warren.’ Like Paul Wellstone, Elizabeth Warren is a bold progressive icon. And it’s fitting that she’d be the one to win back Ted Kennedy’s seat from Republican Scott Brown in 2012,” wrote PCCC’s Stephanie Taylor in an e-mail to supporters.
Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman John Walsh told The Boston Globe last week that he would “love it” if Warren were considering the Senate race.
“I would talk to her and encourage her in a heartbeat,” he said.
Democrats who have already thrown their hats in the Senate race include Newton Mayor Setti Warren, who previously worked as an aide for Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), as well as City Year founder Alan Khazei, activist Bob Massie and state Rep. Tom Conroy.
Meanwhile, USA Today reports that the National Republican Senatorial Committee has called the Democrats looking to oppose Brown a “lackluster field” and has chided Warren’s potential run as being fueled by “party bosses in Washington — and not Bay State voters.”
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