Political Roundtable: Warren Leads Brown, Kennedy's New Ad, Tierney Attacks Tisei

This week could provide a pivotal moment in the race for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts: The first of four debates. All summer long, The Republican incumbent, Scott Brown has been running slightly ahead in the polls. But this weekend, two new surveys gave the edge to his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren.

In Boston on Monday, both Brown and Warren were campaigning — gearing up for their first televised debate this Thursday.

In the 4th congressional district, Representative Barney Frank will be retiring, with Republican Sean Bielat and Democrat Joe Kennedy III vying for his seat in the House.

Kennedy released just released a new ad:

But Bielat told the New York Times that Kennedy didn't deserve the media attention he was getting as a candidate:

Running against a Kennedy means running against this amorphous thing that the media likes to write about in fairly fawning terms. But this guy hasn't earned any of it.

The 6th Congressional district has one of the seats that Republicans think they have a good chance of picking up. Democrat John Tierney recently released an attack ad against his opponent, Republican Richard Tisei last Wednesday, calling him too extreme:

At an event held at his campaign headquarters in Lynnfield, Mass last Thursday, Tisei responded:

Nationally I don't agree with a whole lot of parts of the platform, but people who know me know that I'm my own person. I think for myself. Nobody tells me what to do.

This echoes the tension that we saw on Thursday when the Mass GOP decided to table making a decision on whether or not to adopt the national GOP platform.