Update: It didn’t take long for the Tagg Romney for Senate speculation to come to a screeching halt. The man who slammed on the brakes? Tagg himself. Mitt Romney’s eldest son released this statement this afternoon (via the Washington Post):
I have been humbled by the outreach I received this weekend encouraging me to become a candidate for the U.S. Senate. I love my home state and admit it would be an honor to represent the citizens of our great Commonwealth. However, I am currently committed to my business and to spending as much time as I can with my wife and children. The timing is not right for me, but I am hopeful that the people of Massachusetts will select someone of great integrity, vision, and compassion as our next U.S. Senator.
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Original Post at 10:06 a.m.: You can file this one away in the believe-it-when-you-see-it folder, but the Boston Herald has everyone inside the Beltway and the Bay State abuzz this morning with a report that Mitt Romney’s oldest son is considering jumping in to the special election for John Kerry’s old Senate seat:
Tagg Romney is considering a run in the special Senate election now that Scott Brown has opted out, the Truth Squad has learned. Calls for Romney, 42, to join in the short campaign to replace Secretary of State John F. Kerry have increased since the Herald first reported heavyweight Republicans are urging both Romney and his mother, Ann, to get in.
Today’s report—which should be noted is completely unsourced—follows a similar one by the Herald over the weekend. In that story, the paper appeared to be stoking the Romney For Senate fire with an article about how Massachusetts Republicans were hoping that either Tagg or Ann would jump in the race. In that article, the paper appeared mostly focused on the possibility of Mitt’s wife launching a surprise bid, while Tagg was relegated to the seventh graph:
Other GOP leaders also raised the prospect of Mitt’s eldest son, Tagg, launching a surprise Senate campaign. Tagg Romney was a close campaign adviser and surrogate for his father and is a successful businessman living in Belmont.
With Brown sitting things out, the GOP is certainly in need of someone with name recognition to stand a chance in the dark-blue state, particularly in the shortened campaign of a special election. Tagg Romney would obviously fill that need, although it’s hard to imagine that the family would be eager to return to the campaign trail anytime soon. All the more so given Mitt Romney’s rather lackluster showing in Massachusetts, where he lost to President Obama by more than 20 points.
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