By Paul Tuthill
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-978436.mp3
Springfield, MA – Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren is said to be weighing whether to run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Her political future is up in the air because President Obama this week choose not to nominate her to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because of Republican opposition. WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.
Warren is popular with liberal activists like Sally Weiss, a member of Progressive Democrats of America, who says she appreciates Warrens' work in the area of consumer protection.
Weiss is a regular participant in a monthly demonstration to promote progressive causes staged outside the Springfield district office of Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal. Douglas Renick of Florence Massachusetts is another activist fond of Warren.
Alan Howard of Springfield isn't ready to jump on the Warren bandwagon.
The national Democratic Party has targeted the Massachusetts seat as part of its strategy to retain control of the US Senate after the 2012 election. Tim Vercellotti, a political science professor at Western New England University says party leaders have yet to see a candidate emerge whom they think can defeat Brown..
Vercellotti says Warren's background the Harvard Law Professor from a working class family in Oklahoma, coupled with her ability to communicate complex issues in understandable terms, would make her an intriguing candidate.
In an interview with MSNBC, Warren said she is weary after the battles in Washington, and plans a vacation with her grandchildren.
The Boston Globe, citing an unnamed person the paper described as an advisor to Warren, said she will spend the first part of August considering whether to run for the Senate.