Exactly. The headline should read “Republicans fear Brown may run for Governor”.
Obviously the rats would much rather not have to defend Kerry’s seat.
The MA Governorship IS a dead-end job. The last Governor to go on to a Cabinet post was John Volpe (for the lamentable post of Transportation) in 1969. Prior to that was Christian Herter, who at least got Secretary of State in 1959 (but it required the incapacitation and death of John Foster Dulles — even Ike only gave Herter the UNDER-Secretary position straight from the Governorship, he still had to wait 2 years).
Governor isn’t even a good stepping stone for Senator. The last Governor to win was Republican Leverett Saltonstall in 1944... and that was only because Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. had resigned midterm to enter active military duty. Democrat Foster Furcolo tried running against Saltonstall in 1954 and lost, and his consolation prize was the Governorship after Herter retired in 1956. His job AFTER the Governorship ? An ASSISTANT D.A. in Middlesex County 6 years later.
Go back further and the last Governor that went anywhere was Calvin Coolidge in 1920... and he gave up the job for the post of VICE-President (at a time when you never moved up to the top job unless the top guy bought the farm, and Harding didn’t look like he was about to keel over that year).
Lastly, excluding the circumstances surrounding Coolidge, no Massachusetts Governor has ever gone on to be President. Not one (unless you count John Hancock... who served as President of the Continental Congress).
No, in MA, Senator is the job that you want.