“Sounds like he has run up against the term limit and must seek another job.”
Actually, no. He term-limited out of the House, but is only in his first term as a state Senator, so he could easily have waited to run for the open governor’s seat in 2012, when he would be safely in the middle of his second Senate term.
Obviously, Brown is a serious candidate who wouldn’t run if he didn’t think he had a chance of upending a popular incumbent Governor. Still, it is a long shot, and he seems to be doing this in no small part because he understands that unless the governor has a strong opponent, we will suffer heavy losses in the legislature.
In other words, old-fashioned as it sounds, he is doing it at least in part out of a sense of duty, and taking one for the team.
So, Roy has a lean and hungry look! It’s encouraging; Republicans could even get name recognition again.