Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren to run for Senate from Massachusetts

By Richard K. Barry

Here's a bit of exciting, if not entirely unexpected, news. It seems that consumer advocate and Democrat Elizabeth Warren is going to enter the Massachusetts Senate primary to seek an opportunity to challenge Republican incumbent Scott Brown for his seat.

It's not just that I have been thoroughly charmed by Ms. Warren whenever she has happened to appear on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, although that is true, or that she really gets under the skin of Republicans in Washington, which is also true. No, I am excited because she is an immensely intelligent, articulate and principled voice, and she will make a top notch candidate and, I hope, really give Brown a run for his money.

In a statement release on Tuesday, Warren remarked that:

The pressures on middle-class families are getting worse than ever, but it is the big corporations that get their way in Washington. I want to change that. I will work my heart out to earn the trust of the people of Massachusetts.

Ah, be still my heart.

Warren is a Harvard Law professor who set up the new consumer protection agency last year at the request of the president only to have Republicans successfully oppose her appointment as its director.

While it is true that she has never run for public office, and that this sort of thing usually concerns me, I think she has performed admirably in the public spotlight over the last while and will likely continue to do so as a candidate.

According to The Boston Globe, other Democrats already announced include:

Setti Warren (no relation), the first-term mayor of the affluent Boston suburb of Newton; City Year youth program co-founder Alan Khazei; immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco; state Rep. Tom Conroy and Robert Massie, who unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor.

There is no guarantee that Elizabeth Warren will get the nomination, though her profile will help. And there is surely no guarantee that Brown can be beat, as he's gotten good at speaking out of both sides of his mouth, but you'd have to think Warren has a shot in this traditionally Democratic state.

This could be fun.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)