I am legitimately surprised…
Former Sen. Scott P. Brown, the Massachusetts Republican unseated by Democrat Elizabeth Warren in 2012, announced Friday he will not run in the Senate special election to fill the seat held by Sen. John Kerry.
“Over these past few weeks I have given serious thought about the possibility of running again, as events have created another vacancy requiring another special election. I have received a lot of encouragement from friends and supporters to become a candidate, and my competitive instincts were leading in the same direction,” he said in a statement.
“Even so, I was not at all certain that a third Senate campaign in less than four years, and the prospect of returning to a Congress even more partisan than the one I left, was really the best way for me to continue in public service at this time. And I know it’s not the only way for me to advance the ideals and causes that matter most to me,” he said.
…although I probably shouldn’t have been. Deval Patrick’s term-limited himself (he could run, but he won’t) and Massachusetts is reasonably happy to elect moderate Republicans. In other words, a lot of Democrats associated with the Senate race are now breathing big sighs of relief, while a lot of Democrats associated with the Governor’s race are now swearing. Still, I wouldn’t have minded starting the 2014 election cycle with 46 Senate seats*. Dang shame, that. Ach, well, can’t win ’em all.
At least, that’s the theory.
(Via Instapundit)
Moe Lane
*I am assuming that if Bob Mendendez crashes and burns Chris Christie will decide that it makes more sense to have the bulletproof Cory Booker take the seat, thus freeing up a space to allow for a Republican to challenge the not-bulletproof-at-all Frank Lautenberg. Which is actually an improvement for us in comparison to the scenario where Menendez doesn’t resign; that seat won’t be free until 2018, and Booker is widely expected to topple Lautenberg in the primary and the Republican nominee in the general.
crap.
I wonder is this is Brown’s way of flipping the bird to MA after losing to fauxahontas. I would be bitter if I was in his shoes, people claim they like him and his moderate stance but then boot him for a liberal elitist
I wonder if it’s Brown’s way of adding some “executive” experience to his resume’.
.
Mew
Chris Christie will get the “big nod” before Brown…………….and Christie will not get the nod.
I remember reading a piece not to long ago recommending Brown not go for the open senate seat as we’d just wind up having to spend tens of millions of dollars to defend two years later and likely lose it anyway (so, 4 senate campaigns in 4 years). Keep in mind, while Brown is certainly the strongest candidate R’s have there, he’d still not be favored to win the seat in the special election. In `10 he had absolute perfect candidate to run against. I doubt he’d be that lucky again.
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That said, I wish he would have decided to run.
Well, don’t I look like a horse’s ass for standing up for Scott Brown now. The governorship of Massachusetts does pretty much nothing for advancing the cause of the Republican Party nationally.
Well, don’t I look like a horse’s ass for standing up for Scott Brown now.
Well, no, you don’t. Before His Excellency Deval Patrick got in, Massachusetts had four Republican governors in a row … including the GOP’s last presidential candidate. The Obama White House is trying to paint all Republicans as dangerous extremists. The fact that Republican governors can be elected by the people of a state so blue it verges on ultraviolet, and can successfully govern the damned place, puts the lie to Democrat propaganda about RethugliKKKans.
Hey, what’s this lyin’ around sh*t?! Are the Republicans just going to roll over and play dead? Or will they look for some other good candidate for the 2014 election?
(Actually, what I’d like to see happen would be for the Republicans to cultivate three or four good candidates, That way, the Democrats wouldn’t have a single target for their “politics of personal destruction” until after the primary election.)
(Hmmm … Could Romney win it if he chose to run?)
The problem with cultivating R candidates in Mass, is that it nearly impossible to get any elected to any position of prominence. Even offices way down on the food chain are hard.
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“Could Romney win if he chose to run?”
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No. The man skipped a re-election campaign for Gov because he had zero chance to be re-elected. Whatever Romney’s gifts, he made no lasting positive impression on the people of Massachusetts.
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I think the basic mistake of Romney’s political career is that he chose Mass as the place to launch a career in the Republican party. He’d have been better off starting in Michigan where he had more legacy support and would have been a more natural successor to John Engler.
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