Setti Warren
The Democratic field for an opponent to Scott Brown has been (let's think of a charitable way to say this...) slow to take shape, but it got a little more developed today with the entry of
Setti Warren, the mayor of the city of Newton.
Warren, a former aide to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), formally announced in a Monday web video, with a kickoff "service breakfast" scheduled for Tuesday morning.
"Many of you don't know me," a shirtsleeved Warren says at the start of the video, seated on the lawn of the house where he was raised. "I'm probably about as well-known as Scott Brown was at this point two years ago."
Last month's Suffolk poll of MA-Sen certainly proves Warren's point: it showed him losing by the eye-popping margin of 52-9 to Brown, thanks to the fact that no one knows who he is. Regardless of that, though, Warren may have the basis for a leg up on his Dem primary competition so far: Warren has about 80,000 constituents in Newton (an affluent but dark-blue suburb of Boston), which is 80K more than either City Year founder (and 2010 special election primary loser) Alan Khazei or entrepreneur and former LG candidate Bob Massie. He also has considerable upside for the general, at least in terms of his resume: the charismatic Warren, who's 41 years old and often given the 'rising star' seal of approval in the press, is an Iraq War vet, spending a year there as a Navy Intelligence specialist. And his connections to the Kerry camp should provide significant fundraising and organizational support.
Of course, the question remains whether one of the state's U.S. Representatives gets into the race: Mike Capuano and Stephen Lynch may still be interested in the Senate run, but seem to be hanging back based on a) uncertainty about whether or not their districts get better, worse, or eliminated in redistricting and b) the possibility of a second Senate special election happening in 2013, if John Kerry becomes Secretary of State as rumored. Short of an entry from Capuano or another A-lister, though, a roll of the dice with Warren may be as good as it gets here in the Bay State.
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