Keohan Joins King

James Coyne King has not received much attention in the Massachusetts Democratic primary for US Senate, to take on Scott Brown in 2012, and perhaps rightly so -- "served in the Carter administration" is not a compelling top-line qualification these days. But I have learned something that may be worth taking note of: Chris Keohan has agreed to join the campaign.

Keohan currently runs CK Strategies, and is advising Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley's re-election campaign. He was campaign manager for Sal DiDomenico in his successful, hard-fought state senate victories, and has worked on campaigns of Niki Tsongas and Michael Capuano, among others.

Keohan has confirmed to me that he has joined the King campaign, although he was not specific about the role; my understanding is that he will likely be an advisor until he finishes with Pressley's campaign in early November, and then come on full-time as campaign manager.

King has opened a campaign committee, but is not expected to do a public launch until after Labor Day, and perhaps not until October. He is likely to raise a fairly significant amount of money for the effort -- he heads the Murphy & King law firm, and is said to have a wide-ranging, elite circle of friends -- but the big question is whether he'll have a compelling pitch to make him stand out as a candidate.

But even if you don't think King is a viable candidate, his hiring of Keohan may still be worth noting. Keohan was deputy field director for the Capuano Senate campaign. Capuano is the one congressman people think is most likely to still jump into the 2012 Senate race. But it seems very unlikely that Keohan would have signed on with another candidate without having gotten word that Capuano has decided against running.

Take that as just the latest reading of political tea leaves.