In a move that is sure to bright­en the spir­its of pro­gres­sives across the Unit­ed States, con­sumer pro­tec­tion advo­cate and respect­ed law pro­fes­sor Eliz­a­beth War­ren has announced that she is form­ing an explorato­ry com­mit­tee to con­sid­er run­ning for U.S. Sen­ate in Mass­a­chu­setts as a Demo­c­rat:

“I think this was always part of the plan,” said Doug Rubin, a Demo­c­ra­t­ic polit­i­cal con­sul­tant help­ing War­ren with her pre-cam­paign analy­sis. “The whole point is for her to engage with peo­ple and lis­ten to their con­cerns. This just allows her to do more of that.”

War­ren has been trav­el­ing around Mass­a­chu­setts this week con­duct­ing a self-described “lis­ten­ing tour.”

She had two ses­sions Mon­day, three Tues­day and Wednes­day, and two today in Fram­ing­ham and Shrewsbury.

War­ren filed paper­work with the Fed­er­al Elec­tions Com­mis­sion list­ing her hus­band, also a Har­vard pro­fes­sor, as the com­mit­tee’s treasurer.

Records also indi­cate that she is being advised in legal mat­ters by one of Seat­tle’s best known law firms, Perkins Coie, which pro­vides coun­sel to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee and Pres­i­dent Barack Obama.

War­ren has also launched a web­site, which cur­rent­ly only serves to accept sup­port­er signups or online contributions.

Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists in Mass­a­chu­setts have had good things to say about War­ren’s lis­ten­ing tour, which will con­tin­ue in the wake of today’s announcement.

One activist wrote:

War­ren wowed our group in Arling­ton today. The mood of the group was summed up by one vet­er­an activist’s ques­tion on why War­ren had not yet for­mal­ly announced her can­di­da­cy for Sen­ate: “So what are you wait­ing for already?”

Warren’s answer was spot on – if I run, she told us, it has to be from the grass­roots. Cam­paigns are about a lot of peo­ple com­ing togeth­er. She told us that she needs to know that her mes­sage about fight­ing to pre­serve the mid­dle class will res­onate and that Mass­a­chu­setts activists are with her. Judg­ing by what I saw today, I think she need have no fear on that score. Go Elizabeth!

If War­ren choos­es to move for­ward and run, she will be able to tap some $100,000 in funds raised by the Pro­gres­sive Cam­paign Change Com­mit­tee’s “Draft War­ren” effort, which has been going for weeks.

She will also be able to count on the sup­port of EMI­LY’s List, which rais­es a con­sid­er­able amount of mon­ey for pro-choice Demo­c­ra­t­ic women each elec­tion cycle. (EMILY, for those who don’t know, does not refer to a per­son; it is an acronym which stands for Ear­ly Mon­ey Is Like Yeast).

“The EMI­LY’s List com­mu­ni­ty has been telling me loud and clear that they want Eliz­a­beth War­ren in the race to beat Scott Brown,” said the orga­ni­za­tion’s pres­i­dent, Stephanie Schri­ock. “Today, they got a lit­tle bit clos­er to get­ting their wish.”

“I’m thrilled that Eliz­a­beth is pur­su­ing this next endeav­or with the thought­ful­ness and respect that’s been such a hall­mark of her career. Start­ing a lis­ten­ing tour is not only a great way to find out what folks need, it’s a per­fect con­trast to Repub­li­can Scott Brown, who has yet to hold a sin­gle pub­lic town hall.”

War­ren’s entry into the race could cause oth­er Democ­rats to rethink their own plans, though it is unlike­ly she would be unop­posed for the nomination.

Her can­di­da­cy will like­ly attract nation­al atten­tion — Democ­rats in Mass­a­chu­setts and across the coun­try are still sore about los­ing Ted Kennedy’s Sen­ate seat a year and a half ago, and seem will­ing to back War­ren with the same enthu­si­asm that Al Franken enjoyed when he suc­cess­ful­ly sought to reclaim the seat once held by Paul Well­stone in Min­neso­ta from Repub­li­can Norm Coleman.