As Familiar Face Contemplates Senate Run, Democrats Weigh Possibilities

New York Times — Elizabeth Warren might still be weeks away from deciding whether she wants to run for the United States Senate. But with the news last week that Ms. Warren would be returning to Massachusetts, where she teaches law at Harvard, a sound-bite war about her potential candidacy started in earnest.

Republicans have branded Ms. Warren a Harvard liberal and an outsider, stressing that she was born and raised in Oklahoma. Democrats have intensified attacks on Senator Scott Brown, the Republican facing re-election next year, as a compliant pet of Wall Street — contrasting him with Ms. Warren, who set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington.

And while Ms. Warren, 62, has yet to discuss a Senate run with Democratic operatives here, her fans have started raising money on her behalf and making the case that she would captivate voters who have yet to learn her name.

“She’s an enormously affable, accessible person,” said Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard law colleague. “I don’t think she would come with the baggage that someone from an elite university might sometimes have.”

Others pointed out that Ms. Warren’s father was a maintenance man and that she could use her blue-collar upbringing to thwart attempts to pigeonhole her as a member of the Harvard elite.

Democrats salivate at the thought of unseating Mr. Brown, a popular freshman who shocked them in 2010 by winning the seat that Edward M. Kennedy held for 47 years. But so far, the field of seven declared Democratic candidates lacks a standout; the best known are Alan Khazei, who co-founded a national service program and finished third in a field of four candidates in the Democratic primary in 2009, and Setti Warren, the mayor of suburban Newton, whose campaign is already in debt.

Mr. Brown has already raised nearly $10 million for his re-election race, but many Democrats say Ms. Warren could easily match him in fund-raising by tapping into national networks.

“She has a lot of fans among our membership, and they’re very aware of the fact she’s one of the boldest leaders out there,” said Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal group soliciting donations for a draft fund that would be transferred to Ms. Warren should she run. “If she decides to run, this will be one of the marquee races of 2012, second only to the presidential race.”

So will she? Ms. Warren declined through a spokeswoman to be interviewed, but she said in television appearances last week that she would think about her future only after leaving Washington next month. She will also take a family vacation — to the Legoland theme park in California, she said — and will probably not announce a decision before Labor Day, several friends said.

In the meantime, high-placed Democrats here are waiting for her to call and wondering just how gifted a candidate Ms. Warren, who has never run for office, would be.

“I don’t know her,” said John Walsh, the chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, “but I’ve seen her on TV, and if she’s as good on the stump or at the chicken bake as she is on Rachel Maddow, she will definitely have some support.”

Others said much remained to be seen.

“She has been in a very high-profile, controversial public position and handled herself very well,” said Philip W. Johnston, a former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. “But running for office presents an entirely different set of problems and challenges. Some people are good at it; some are not.”

For Ms. Warren, one such challenge could be the fact that Massachusetts has a poor track record of electing women. Only four women have ever been elected to the House of Representatives here, and only six to a statewide office.

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