Rep. Michael Rush, a fourth-term House member, is running against fellow West Roxbury Democrat state Sen. Marian Walsh if she seeks reelection, he told the News Service Monday, setting up the prospect of a rare intraparty challenge for a legislative seat.
“Throughout the fall and last spring, I had an opportunity to move around this Senate district and talk to people when it looked like this seat might open up, and got very strong encouragement,” Rush said.
Rush said Monday he had tried to contact Walsh but not been successful.
“She certainly has shown that she is not interested in representing the district anymore,” Rush told the News Service in December, pointing to Walsh’s past interest in gubernatorial appointments.
Rush last year polled his chances in the district, which contains Dedham, Westwood, Norwood, and a southwestern swath of Boston. He recently opened a district office on Centre Street in West Roxbury and has been spending time in the suburban towns in the district.
Walsh, an ally of Gov. Deval Patrick who drew controversy earlier this year when she briefly accepted and then abandoned a $175,000 administration appointment to a job that had lain vacant for more than a decade, has not indicated whether she will try for another term. In 2008, she withdrew from the judicial appointment process. A spokesman said last month her decision would not be influenced by other candidates.
“Her decision to run is not going to be based on anyone else’s decision but her own,” said the spokesman, Michael Goldman. “If she runs, we think we’ll be fine.”
House Democrats said Rush could benefit from the same political winds that elevated state Sen. Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate seat over Attorney General Martha Coakley last week. Like Brown, Rush is in active military service, and to the ideological right of his opponent.
Goldman said Walsh traditionally decides in January, during election years, whether she will run again and that he expected the same process this cycle.
“If he runs, we’ll run against him,” Goldman said last month. “And if anyone else runs, we’ll run against them. Right now, I have no reason to believe she is or isn’t. Obviously, there’ll be a lot of candidates if she doesn’t, and there will probably be candidates if she does.”
Rush has feinted toward the seat before, and decided against it.
