Last week, former Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts (R) announced that he would not run in a special election on June 25 to fill the Senate seat recently vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. That has left the Republican Party in Massachusetts in a bit of a pickle, and the state GOP is reportedly scrambling to find a candidate with name recognition who can challenge the Democrats. One possibility? Tagg Romney, the eldest son of Mitt Romney. Tagg is considering a run, says Hillary Chabot at the Boston Herald:
The eldest son of former governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney already has statewide name recognition and could quickly ramp up the campaign infrastructure for a short, five-month race.
The father of six was a regular on the campaign trail in both of his father's failed races for president in 2008 and 2012, which would give him some political know-how while working to win over Bay State voters. [Boston Herald]
With the election happening so soon, "money and name recognition have the best chance to sway voters," writes Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.
Whether Tagg is really interested (ABC News says he's not) is still a subject of debate, and one glaring negative alone should be enough for him to think twice: His father lost Massachusetts by a whopping 23 percentage points in 2012. In other words, the Romney name would surely be recognized, but that would probably hurt Tagg more than it would help him, especially with the last election so fresh in voters' minds.
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Another name being thrown around is Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, though it's unclear whether her health concerns — she has multiple sclerosis — would permit her to follow through on the more grueling aspects of running for office.
At this point, the GOP is running out of options in Massachusetts. Former Gov. Bill Weld has also nixed a run, as has former state Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei. That's a shame from the GOP's perspective, given that the Democratic field — currently led by Reps. Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch — is considered to be relatively weak. "The prospect of a GOP pickup is real," says Eliana Johnson at National Review.
While Tagg may decide not to run this time around, some political analysts say it's likely that another Romney will eventually try his or her hand at politics. "It's almost a foregone conclusion at this point," says Aaron Blake at The Washington Post.
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