The first to fall.
Newton mayor Setti Warren, whose US Senate campaign has been short on cash and eclipsed by the emergence of Elizabeth Warren, plans to announce tomorrow that he is dropping out, according to an early supporter who received a phone call this afternoon. A source close to the campaign confirmed the mayor was speaking with supporters and said he will make an announcement on the future of his Senate campaign in the morning.
I enjoyed our conversation with Setti, and I see no reason why he shouldn’t have a bright future in politics. This wasn’t his time to move up the ranks, but if he continues doing a good job in Newton, I have no doubt we’ll see more of him down the road.
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I liked him, liked his ideas. If I’d had to vote today, it would have been for S. Warren. The BMG kiss of death may be iffy, but the sabutai kiss of death (Reilly, H. Clinton, E. O’Reilly, Capuano) lives on.
…it would not have been Setti Warren.
S Warren did the math. He’s got a great career ahead of him — no need to crash and burn hard here. Khazei doesn’t have any motivation to save his mojo for later. Tom Conroy? Dunno. The rest? Gadflies.
The upshot: there’s a better chance that Conroy and/or Khazei score the 15% delegates necessary next summer.
who added to the conversation. It was a pleasure to get to know him and look forward to seeing his career progress. He is a very bright young man and Veteran with a lot of class!
People bring it up jokingly, but it does impose certain challenges when you have the same last name as a far more prominent candidate, since it’s harder to run slick advertising when you have to refer to the candidate by their full name every time.
Totally not his time….we are all excited about what he chooses down the road. A good decision is a win.
At least from what he posted on BMG I saw very little of substance. But I wish that he can serve a full term in Newton and do well there.
Maybe I’m crazy to suggest a totally non-cynical reason, that isn’t hard political calculation, for why he’s doing this, but maaaybe he honestly believes Elizabeth Warren is the better candidate for this office?
By campaigning legitimately for US Senate, positively, and getting out now, he’d also build up his standing for a future run for another office.
I like Setti. I enjoyed getting to know him. He is a worker and he gets along well with people. They are both qualities that go a long way toward being an effective legislator.
about the way Setti ended his campaign, which is this email that I received on Monday. Surely, the end was near by then, and most on the inside knew the campaign wouldn’t last the week.
Call me a crank, but I think it’s bad form to ask for money when you know, or pretty much know, that the campaign is going to end in a couple of days.
at least according to his last FEC filing, the campaign was in debt more than $20,000, so he still needs to raise money to pay off whatever debt he’s incurred even if he drops out of the race.
nothing is said about that in the fundraising appeal. It’s fine to try to fundraise to retire debt from a failed campaign, but IMHO one should be up front that that’s what you’re doing.
that was clearly stated that it was to retire debt. So it’s not that uncommon. Not to pile on, but poor form.
and Alan Khazei did something similar after the last Senate campaign. Nothing wrong with that at all, as long as there’s disclosure.
I guess the question is whether this adds pressure to Khazei or Conroy, or opens a door for one of them.
How does Massie score on name recognition? He has run before.
I posted this Sunday:
“I think he should cut his losses in the Senate race and re-focus on rebuilding his brand as mayor – if he doesn’t, I think he’ll soon be out of the political game completely, courtesy of Mayor-elect Ruth Balser. His fundraising is weak, his hometown state Senator Cindy Creem made a point of endorsing one of his opponents, and his message/delivery is getting nowhere.”
Kidding of course, but so rarely do I have such accurate predictions, I couldn’t resist.
In all seriousness, best of luck to Setti as he goes forward. It takes a lot of heart and sacrifice to run for public office, especially U.S. Senate, and his head/heart seem to be in the right place. With people like him in our farm system, I think the Dems are in good shape going forward.
My next prediction: Eric Fehrn gets busted tweeting on his @SoLongSetti twitter handle, he blows it off, Scotto promises it will never happen again…again. I’ll be 2/2 in no time.