By Paul Tuthill
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-986164.mp3
Springfield, MA – Democrats who hoped for a high profile challenger to Republican Scott Brown in the 2012 Massachusetts Senate race now have one. After weeks of testing the political waters, Elizabeth Warren dove in on Wednesday, as we here from WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill..
( nat)..Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law professor, who has a national following because of her relentless attacks against Wall Street, formally launched her Democratic campaign for the US Senate in Massachusetts in a video posted on her campaign's website.
On her first day as a candidate Warren set out to meet voters across the state, starting with morning commuters at a train station in Boston, and ending with the after work crowd at a restaurant in downtown Springfield.
Warren set up the new consumer protection agency in Washington, but faced with Republican opposition, she was not nominated by President Obama to lead the new agency. Tim Vercellotti, a political science professor at Western New England University, says it is no surprise that Warren is portraying herself as a champion of the middle class.
Vercellotti, says Warren's entry into the Democratic field that already had six candidates, shakes things up, but it is premature to anoint her as the frontrunner.
Todd Domke, a Boston based Republican political analyst says Warren could cruise to the nomination if she secured endorsements from Governor Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Attorney General Martha Coakley
Domke says it is clear how Republicans will try to turn Warren's work in Washington against her.
Scott Brown remains the most popular politician in Massachusetts according to Vercellotti, who heads the polling institute at Western New England University.
A spokesman for Scott Brown's campaign said they would have no comment on Warren's campaign announcement.