Up in Massachusetts, Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe updates his scorecard on the Senate seat that will open up when John Kerry departs to become secretary of state:
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Representative Ed Markey has lined up support from several big names, like Kerry and the Kennedy clan. For now, Markey’s usual campaign website is the barest of bones, announcing his Senate bid and asking for donations.
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Markey has two potential big-name rivals still in the mix. Representative Stephen Lynch is working the phones to gauge support for a bid, and Representative Michael Capuano is not ruling out a campaign.
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Perhaps the most intriguing indicator in Johnson’s roundup involves soon-to-depart Senator Scott Brown, who “is trying to engineer the selection of his deputy campaign finance director as the new chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, which would give him de facto control of over $700,000 in a party joint victory account — plenty to seed a special election campaign.”
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The only other potential Republican Senate candidate mentioned is former governor William F. Weld.
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While no one knows who Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, will appoint as the interim senator, his desire for a loyalist has some mentioning the name of his “outgoing Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez.”