Keller @ Large: Senate Race Shake-Up
BOSTON (CBS) - The Senate race in Massachusetts is about to get a whole lot more exciting.
Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren will announce her candidacy Thursday morning, and join a growing field of Democrats who are challenging Republican Scott Brown.
Professor Warren, who drew national attention with her brass-knuckles fight to create the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, has created a lot of buzz in political circles.
WBZ-TV's Jon Keller Is At Large
But now she enters a brass-knuckle fight of a different kind, with opponents who aren't exactly crying uncle.
Newton Mayor Setti Warren and City Year co-founder Alan Khazei, who have been in this race for months seem eager to compare their records with Warren, a career academic.
"I think the contrast is, I have a 25 year track record of working from the grassroots up," says Khazei.
"I've served this country in uniform, an Iraq war veteran," says Setti Warren. "I understand the challenges abroad, I understand what we have to do here at home to get people back to work."
And they appear unmoved by the political premise propelling Warren's candidacy, that no other candidate has the stature to beat the incumbent.
"Look, I've had eight mayors endorse me, I'm proud of that, I just won the straw poll in Methuen, I'm proud of that," says Setti Warren. "The people of Massachusetts are gonna decide this election."
"This is for the voters to decide, it's not for Washington insiders, party elites to decide," says Khazei.
That quote from Khazei sounds like the spin Scott Brown used to beat Martha Coakley in the 2010 Senate election.
And don't forget, along with Setti Warren and Alan Khazei, there are five other declared candidates in the Democratic Primary who may well choose not to defer to Elizabeth Warren.
