Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Against Brown, Democrats have a full bench but no real player

What do Deval Patrick, Vickie Kennedy, Robert Pozen, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Barney Frank, Mike Capuano, Steve Lynch, Setti Warren, Kim Driscoll, Bob Massie, Marty Meehan, Alan Khazei, Rachel Maddow, Therese Murray, Warren Tolman, Martha Coakley, John Walsh, and Jim McGovern have in common?

Well, for one thing, they're all Democrats. And, their names have all been listed in published reports as possible challengers to United States Senator Scott Brown next year.

We're wondering: What is the Democrats' strategy here?

No doubt, Democrats want to get an early start challenging Brown, who reportedly has already collected a $7.1 million war chest to fund his reelection.

It's possible that these names are just being tossed around by the media, but stories like these usually start somewhere else.

It's also possible that Democrats already have an establishment candidate and that this laundry list of names is being tossed out there by them to suggest an air of vulnerability, or to confuse, or to garner press attention for a possible field.

But, we think it seems more likely that Democrats are just throwing names at the wall to see what sticks -- because they don't have a challenger who's both worthy and willing to take on Brown.

In order to win, Democrats would need someone with star power, experience and a load of money to be willing to take the plunge. So far, at least, no one on the list appears able to put that full package together. And, unless and until then, we think Brown looks like he's in a good position to retain control of "the people's seat" for a full term.

1 comment:

  1. funny, the dems were saying the same thing about the gop when martha was dominating the dem field of dwarfs (er, little people candidates).

    the big difference is that brown has a record to run on -- or from. a lot of dems will come out to vote obama .....

    ReplyDelete

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