Where Are The Republican State Senate Candidates?

I see that next week the MassGOP is running "Should I Run For Office?" workshops, to recruit candidates for state legislature. That's a bit of a last-minute pitch -- the deadline to submit signatures is May 1, three weeks from today. Granted, you don't need a lot of signatures to get on the ballot for those offices, but still.

So far, there's not much to show for the Republican recruitment effort, particularly forstate senate races. I'm still on the lookout for candidates, but as of now I know of GOP challengers against just 11 of the 33 incumbent Democrats seeking re-election, and several of them are pretty clearly hopeless quests. (Nothing against hopeless political quests, BTW.) There will also probably be Republican candidates for at least two of the three open seats. At least for now, it looks like a number of arguably vulnerable Democrats will get a free pass.

Granted, the 2012 Presidential-year election figures to be a tough one for Republicans in the state. And running for state senate as a Republican in this state has been a fool's errand in recent years.

But still, given the scandals and allegations on Beacon Hill, and the drawing power of Scott Brown in the US Senate race, I would think this would be a cycle for a few serious challenges. So far, I'm not seeing much.