Elizabeth Warren fires up liberal base in Mass.

[November 15, 2011]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is filling a void for liberal but disillusioned Democrats who flocked to President Barack Obama in 2008. She's attracting attention, money and help the liberal left isn't yet eager to give to Obama.

A longtime consumer advocate, the Harvard University professor has cast herself as a crusader against corporations and once said her work provided the "intellectual foundation" of the Occupy Wall Street movement -- a statement Warren later backed away from. She's drawing large crowds and flexing her fundraising muscle with help from national progressive groups as her candidacy has caught fire among the small army of activists who dominate the party in the traditionally liberal state.

"America's middle class has been hammered for a generation and we've got a Congress that just doesn't get it and that's what this race is about. That's what people want to talk about ... I'm not discovering something new. I'm just giving voice to something that they are living," Warren said on Sunday after meeting with about 1,000 supporters at an athletic facility in Boston.

Warren raised more than $3 million for the fundraising quarter that ended Sept. 30. That was roughly more than twice as much as incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who is using her lefty appeal as a rallying cry for the right. Nearly 70 percent of the money she raised came from outside Massachusetts, while just 37 percent of Brown's third-quarter money came from out of state.

Liberals have grown increasingly disenchanted as Obama wrestled with a divided government following the 2010 congressional elections when Republicans won the House. They cringed when he cut a deal with Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts, and they said he gave up too much in spending cuts during the debt-ceiling fight.

Early in the administration, liberals were frustrated that Obama ditched a proposed "public option" in the health care debate that would have allowed a government-run health insurance option.

A UMass Lowell-Boston Herald poll released Oct. 2 found that in Massachusetts, half the state's Democrats said Obama has compromised too much, while four in 10 Democrats said Obama had fallen short of their expectations. Nationally, about one in four Democrats said Obama had been cooperating too much with Republicans in trying to fix the economy, an Associated Press-GfK Poll in October showed.

"She's coming at just the right time," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a leading House liberal. "There are a lot of progressives and liberals who feel let down that Obama is not fighting hard enough for some of the causes they care about. And so here comes Elizabeth Warren to kind of fill that void and to provide a way for people to fight again for what they believe in."

Warren was tapped by Obama last year to set up a new consumer protection agency, but congressional Republicans opposed her becoming the director and Obama last summer decided not to pick her to head the new agency.

Of course, Obama generated even more enthusiasm among liberals, new voters and independents in 2008, exciting millions of voters and packing stadiums during his presidential campaign of hope and change. But after four years of actual governance, many on the left are disappointed.

"At some point excitement meets reality," said Steve McMahon, a longtime Democratic strategist who was a senior aide on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid.

Warren has emerged as the leading Democratic challenger to Brown in what promises to be a marquee race in 2012. Recent polls show Warren, a 62-year-old grandmother who grew up in Oklahoma, running about even with Brown. Two of her primary opponents have already dropped out.

Brown's seat, held for nearly a half-century by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, has special resonance for Democrats. It's also considered their best shot at taking a seat from Republicans.

Yet Brown is a strong fundraiser and he appeals to independents who have strong sway in Massachusetts races.

The UMass-Herald poll showed Brown leading Warren among independents, 48 percent to 29 percent. Brown, too, has $10.5 million in his campaign account, more than three times Warren's cash holdings.

After claiming credit for the Occupy Wall Street protests, Warren said she meant to say that she had been protesting against Wall Street abuses for a long time. Republicans pounced, pointing to arrests of some protesters in Boston and Oakland, Calif.

Despite the gaffe, Democrats who feared the first-time candidate would be clumsy and too professorial have mostly been pleasantly surprised by Warren's folksy but forceful campaigning style.

"Without a doubt, Elizabeth Warren has captured the imagination of Democrats not just in Massachusetts, but across the country," said Setti Warren, the first-term mayor of the affluent Boston suburb of Newton and the state's first popularly elected black mayor. Setti Warren dropped out of the Senate race shortly after Elizabeth Warren got in. The two aren't related.

While other liberal candidates are drawing strong support, particularly Rep. Tammy Baldwin's Senate bid in Wisconsin, Warren has generated the most excitement among liberal activists across the country. The state's primary is set for September 2012.

A video clip of Warren calling for more taxes on the rich drew more than 775,000 views on YouTube.

Underscoring Warren's appeal, MoveOn.org said it raised more than $300,000 for Warren in less than 24 hours. EMILY'S List, which raises money for female Democratic candidates, helped collect $197,394 for Warren while the Progressive Change Campaign Committee helped collect $412,133.

Should she win in Massachusetts, Warren, too, would likely find it difficult in Congress to live up to her campaign rhetoric and match the expectations of her supporters.

"That's the downside to this phenomenon for anybody," said Scott Ferson, a veteran Democratic strategist and former spokesman for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, adding that it's a lot easier for politicians to sell things like hope and change than it is to deliver.

[Associated Press; By ANDREW MIGA]

Associated Press Polling Director Trevor Tompson contributed to this report from Washington; AP writer Steve LeBlanc contributed to this report from Boston.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.