The dust may have settled from the 2012 Senate race, but both sides have made 
news recently.
The Boston Globe reports that Sarah Benzing, Sen. Sherrod Brown's 2012 campaign manager, will manage Rep. Edward J. Markey's campaign in Massachusetts. Markey hopes to win the Senate seat soon to be vacated by Sen. John Kerry, who has been nominated to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. In the most recent Massachusetts Senate race, Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Scott Brown, who previously won the seat in a 2010 special election. Two former Warren campaign finance staffers have already joined forces with Benzing on the Markey campaign.
Former Brown campaign Communications Director Justin Barasky will be the National Press Secretary for the 2014 election cycle, The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced last week. During the 2012 campaign, Barasky relentlessly hammered Mandel for skipping important meetings and hiring college friends for important positions in the Treasurer's office.
Meanwhile, State Treasurer Josh Mandel has brought new meaning to the expression "candidate of last resort." On Monday, Mandel informed the Cincinnati Enquirer that he was the GOP's seventh choice to run against Brown. As the Enquirer explains, "Everyone else refused to run." Other potential GOP candidates included Attorney General Mike DeWine, Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor, and now-retired Congressman Steve LaTourette. Despite being "in it to win it," as Mandel described, he lost the Senate race by 327,000 votes.
