“If you have an ‘R’ next to your name and you open your mouth, you’re hated. If you’re a Democrat, like Elizabeth Warren, you can say anything you please and get away with it. That’s where we are.”
— Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), quoted by the Boston Globe, while campaigning for Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Geoff Diehl (R).
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), “the most prolific fund-raiser in the Senate, raised more than a million dollars a month in the first three months of the year, and more than 10 times what each of her Republican opponents raised during the same period,” the Boston Globe reports.
“Warren’s campaign says the $3.12 million amassed during the year’s first quarter gives her an eye-popping total of $15 million cash in the bank more than six months before Election Day.”
“Even more disheartening for her Republican rivals: Her fund-raising tally — and the gulf with her opponents — could easily grow larger.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she would serve her full six-year term in the Senate if reelected this November, Politico reports.
Said Warren: “Yes, that’s my plan. I’m running for the United States Senate in 2018. I am not running for president of the United States. That’s my plan.”
Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate John Kingston (R), who is pouring millions of his own dollars into his campaign, couldn’t name the U.S. House member who represents the district in which he lives, the Boston Globe reports.
“Kingston, who is campaigning to join the state’s congressional delegation as one of its major players, said he thought it was a Democrat from Cambridge… But then he went to the Internet and discovered who represents his hometown: Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), who has been in Congress since 2013. (She is indeed, a Democrat, but from Melrose.)”
A new WBUR poll in Massachusetts finds that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Gov. Charlie Baker (R) both retain wide leads over challengers who are struggling to gain broad public attention.
Key finding: “All of Elizabeth Warren and Baker’s current challengers suffer from a lack of name recognition; for each of the seven, most voters polled had never heard of them.”
Boston Globe: “This time the attacks are coming from someone new: Robert Mercer, a New York billionaire who is trying to remake American politics and who bankrolled former Trump chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s Republican revolution.”
“Mercer’s methods are anything but subtle. One political operative described Mercer’s approach to politics as a ‘trail of tears’ tactic, a reference to President Andrew Jackson’s forced removal of Native Americans from their homelands.”
“Given political realities — including Warren’s massive fund-raising advantage and Massachusetts’ liberal status — Mercer’s intent isn’t really to defeat her in the 2018 Senate race, according to three people with knowledge of the family’s intentions. Instead, Robert Mercer and his politically minded middle daughter Rebekah have a longer term goal: They want to sand down some of Warren’s gloss ahead of an expected presidential campaign in 2020.”
“Republicans are getting a jump on Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign,” McClatchy reports.
“The Massachusetts Democrat is preparing to run for re-election to the Senate in 2018 and hasn’t said yet whether she’ll challenge President Donald Trump for the White House. But in-state and national Republican officials have decided to target the liberal icon anyway, saying they will try to inflict enough damage during the Senate race to harm any future presidential effort — and perhaps dissuade her from running altogether.”
“Already, one national Republican group has begun a comprehensive effort to track Warren’s every public appearance and add to a dossier of unflattering research on her.”
“Elizabeth Warren’s creative media-dodging habits are a running joke among her home-state press corps. Whenever the senator makes a public appearance, Massachusetts reporters know to keep one eye fixed on the exit doors. But that might be changing,” Politico reports.
“In just the last week alone, the notoriously press-averse progressive icon held three open-to-media events back home, followed by lengthy huddles with reporters on a wide range of issues ranging from her Senate votes to Donald Trump’s wiretapping accusations to the 2020 race.”
A new WBUR poll in Massachusetts finds that only 44% of voters think Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “deserves reelection” while 46% think voters ought to “give someone else a chance.”
“Warren’s numbers contrast sharply with those of Gov. Charlie Baker (R). His favorability rating is 59% — 8 points better than Warren. But what’s more striking is that only 29% of poll respondents think someone else should get a chance at the governor’s office.”
Said pollster Steve Koczela: “No one’s going to look at a 44 percent reelect number and think that that’s a good number. No one’s going to look at it being close to even between ‘reelect’ and ‘give someone else a chance’ and think that that’s reassuring.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) announced this morning that she is running for reelection in 2018, the Boston Globe reports.
Said Warren: “The people of Massachusetts didn’t send me to Washington to roll over and play dead while Donald Trump and his team of billionaires, bigots, and Wall Street bankers crush the working people of our Commonwealth and this country. This is no time to quit.”
She added: “I don’t kid myself: the upcoming fights in the Senate – and our campaign in Massachusetts in 2018 – are likely to be uglier and nastier than anything we’ve ever imagined. I’m not taking anything for granted.”
A new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll in Massachusetts finds Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leading former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling in a U.S. Senate race, 58% to 24%.
Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling told WPRO that that he’s planning to run against Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018.
Said Schilling: “I’ve made my decision. I’m going to run. But I haven’t talked to Shonda, my wife. And ultimately it’s going to come down to how her and I feel this would affect our marriage and our kids.”
Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling says that he’s “serious” about mounting a 2018 challenge to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Politico reports.
Said Schilling: “Oh, I’m serious about it. If I’m not electable, then I won’t get elected but I believe being a senator, being a governor, being in public office is about being a leader.”
He also derided Hillary Clinton: “I don’t understand how Hillary’s an option, much less the candidate. I don’t understand how she’s not in jail.”
Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling (R) told WRKO that he may challenge Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in 2018.
Said Schilling: “I thought about it, and one of the things I would like to do is be one of the people responsible for getting Elizabeth Warren out of politics.”
Defeated New Hampshire Senate candidate Scott Brown (R) “may have changed states between 2012 and 2014, but he didn’t change his concession speech all that much… Brown’s roughly six-minute speech on Tuesday night was not entirely identical to his more than 14-minute concession in 2012. ABC News watched both concessions and found some uncanny similarities.”