Politics in the Bay State: who will fill Kerry's seat?

>>> if you were looking for a competitive senate race in a special election in massachusetts , you may not get one. you can now add former massachusetts governor william well to the list of republicans who say they are not running in the massachusetts special. let's bring back our gaggle. ramesh, susan, steve. on friday morning, we knew that scott brown was releasing a statement. the minute he said that you sort of knew where the writing was. i was surprised by some of the reporting that said he shocked republicans by not running. i would have been shocked if he had run.

>> we think he's going to run for governor. probably a better race for him and maybe a better job. people who have worked in the senate might think being governor is a better place to be.

>> steve, we were reminding folks on friday that martha cokely got 47%. if on the republicans' greatest day of all time, low democratic point in massachusetts , and your ceiling is 53, it's not going to happen.

>> it's not going to happen for that reason.

>> even if your name is scott brown , after his whole -- this time they had actually run a campaign against him.

>> that's exactly my point. the democrats were sort of snuck up on last time. that wouldn't happen again. scott brown , really, if anybody runs, democrats will make sure massachusetts elects a democrat.

>> but there is a history of moderate massachusetts republicans making races competitive in that state so who's left?

>> the governorship, 16 years.

>> they may get it back.

>> governor's different because it's an executive position and people kind of like the moderate republican who will keep taxes low --

>> sort of less idealogical statement.

>> exactly. it's not necessarily --

>> boston herald reported on tagg romney . i don't see the romney brand working well at this point in time.

>> that may be right. i suppose we'll get an early test of whether the project is working. i think that the other thing to keep in mind about scott brown is he doesn't want to, after having run in the special election , run in a regular re-election, run in another special election and another regular election. if he gets the governorship he's got it for four years and at this point he's got to be sick of running, running.

>> claire mccaskill ran a ridiculous amount of senate races.

>> if he loses again in a senate race, he's done. this is self-preservation.

>> i would just say whenever we're this sure of something, this far out, that we're often wrong and things happen, candidates -- better candidates than we think, worse candidates than we think. even in massachusetts we can be surprised.

>> that's right. you never know.

>> i'm enjoying watching "house of cards" on netflix. give it a try.

>> how do i do it? i'm not a netflix person.

>> the hopkins touch by david rolle, a washington lawyer, about the guy who chris matthews called fdr's left hand man.

>> okay.

>> you mentioned my gray hair. four girls, our oldest just turned 16 last weekend. now it's like i got to drive around with her and holy good lord.

>> that's why you have gray hair.

>> state of virginia secretly raised the age of driving under to 18. see you right back here tomorrow. congratulations, ed