US Senate

WBZ reports.

No Tagg, no Weld, no Healy, no Hedlund, no Tisei, but state Rep. Dan Winslow is promising a very special announcement at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Meanwhile, one-time Republican Jack E. Robinson hopes to crash the election party by running as an independent.

Desperate for a Republican candidate with the slightest chance, the Herald bypasses Doug Bennett and tries to create a boomlet for Ann or Tagg Romney in this spring's Senate elections.

Now that everybody's favorite scooter-riding, sticker-plastering city-council candidate has jumped into the race for the Republican nomination for the Senate. Ladies and gentlemen: Doug Bennett for US Senate.

Won't run in 2014.

Also not running: Rabbi Jonah Pesner for Senate.

David Bernstein reports Ed Markey could face competition in his bid to replace John Kerry from Rabbi Jonah Pesner of Newton, senior vice president of the national Union of Reform Judaism.

Ben bows out of Senate race.

You can call her Senator Warren now.

As more votes come in, WHDH is calling Elizabeth Warren the winner over incumbent Scott Brown. Among other things, Warren becomes the state's first woman senator.

While statewide the race was close, in Boston, city results show Warren winning 65-35.

Mark Leccese: "Tough night for the Boston Herald. And their pollster."

Next up: Secretary of State John Kerry?

H/t Andrea Garvey for the headline.

David Gregory doesn't seem to realize he's not a candidate. He spent the first 15 minutes on the "character" issues that everybody in Massachusetts already is sick to death of. He decided that immigration is a more important issue than jobs. His toupee is too obvious.

Blue Mass. Group posted this video of Scott Brown staffers doing oh-no-not-at-all-racist war cries and tomahawk chops outside the Eire Pub in Dorchester the other day. And, of course, this being Boston, well, no rally is complete without a "Yankees suck!" chant.

Jump in with your thoughts.

John Carroll notes what he calls the "chin-strokerati" coverage of the nascent US Senate race by the Globe and other media outlets - they're only writing for other in-the-knowers, not the majority of us. For example, the Globe's constant references to the "now familiar" story of Warren's childhood in Okalahoma:

Ask ten people in the 351 cities and towns of Massachusetts about Elizabeth Warren and 1) 98% won’t know who she is; 2) 99.99% won't know the first thing about her.

OK, so Dems get predictably outraged about Scott Brown's public desire to not see Elizabeth Warren naked, but Republicans might want to find a better way to respond than praising Brown's decision to pose nude for a sex-advice rag as an example of an agonizing decision he courageously made.

Now only one Warren running.

Her announcement. Maybe now that she's officially in the race, she'll stop treating all of her campaign stops, such as her formal announcement at the Broadway T stop this morning, as state secrets (reporters were told in advance, of course, but only on the condition they not tell anybody).

The Globe today profiles Tom Conroy, a Wayland state rep who is walking across the state in his bid to run against Scott Brown next year:

The three-term state representative from Wayland is believed to be the first candidate in the state to walk its entirety seeking votes, drawing inspiration from Lawton Chiles, a legendary Florida politician who traversed his state 41 years ago in a similar underdog campaign that vaulted him from the state Senate into the US Senate.

Tsk. In 1978, Michael Connolly, then a Roslindale state rep, walked across the state in his successful run for secretary of state. It's in the Globe archives (articles on Aug. 24 and Sept. 14 of that year; yeah, I looked it up). And it was actually Connolly's second walk from Bay to Berkshires - he'd done it the year before, to collect signatures for a term-limit ballot question.

First was Mayor for Life Ted Mann. Then came Mayor Until Newton North David Cohen.

Today, Mayor For a Year and A Bit Setti Warren tweeted he's running for the US Senate seat now held by Scott Brown in next year's elections.

Who? The mayor of Newton, that's who.

There's a boomlet on the left drumstick of the body politic for the Harvard professor turned Washington consumer advocate.

The Herald, meanwhile, reports Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll is considering a bid.

Brown to give Tea Party rally in Boston a pass; flack earns pay by claiming senator who found time to campaign for John McCain in Arizona now too busy to show up in the largest city in his state.

By giving Rachel Maddow a reason to buy a full-page ad in the paper.

Declares her non-intentions in an exclusive interview on, um, her own show; says Draft Maddow page on Facebook likely a joke by a friend of hers:

Earlier:
Scott Brown uses UH post to scare up new campaign funds.

An obscure political journal down in Washington reports that Mr. Pink Leather Pants is using this UH post about the draft-Maddow campaign to squeeze even more money out of the out-of-state Republicans who made his campaign richer than God helped him across the finish line this year:

Rachel Maddow has a nightly platform to push her far-left agenda. What about you? I'd like to encourage ordinary American citizens concerned about the future of their country to get more involved in our government. I hope you were encouraged by my victory to become more politically active, maybe even become a candidate for office yourself. We can continue to push our movement forward by running for office, joining in rallies and petitions that challenge President Obama and Nancy Pelosi's healthcare legislation, supporting campaigns against the tax-and-spenders or by donating time and money to office-holders and candidates who will restore the principles of our founders. ...

UPDATE: Maddow declares she isn't running; appreciates a good joke as much as anyone.

OK, so it was kind of interesting this morning that some people had set up a Facebook page to try to convince MSNBC talent and Northampton resident Rachel Maddow to run against Scott Brown in 2012 (they're now 5.2% of the way toward their goal of getting 10,000 people to sign up). It got even funner this afternoon when John Walsh, chairman of the Democratic State Committee, got wind of the boomlet and posted what sure seemed like it was meant to be a private message on the Tweety:

Some are talking about you running vs Scott Brown in '12. I'm Chair of MA Dem Party. My email is johnewalsh@Comcast.net cell-617-650-9311

Apparently I'm not the only one disappointed to learn that politicians don't have instant access to everybody's phone numbers (you know how losing candidates always call the winning candidate on election night - where do they get their phone numbers from?) - there's now a Twitter discussion on #walshgate. And please, for goodness sake, don't go calling Walsh and asking if his refrigerator is running.

Amy Derjue, who has some familiarity with Twitter issues, provides this thought:

#walshgate is like clicking "reply to all" in Outlook. But to the whole internet. Cue overwhelming paranoia whenever DMing from now on.