Elizabeth Warren making moves in Massachusetts

Elizabeth Warren, the architect of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a liberal hero, looks like she's preparing to challenge Republican Scott Brown for Massachusetts' Senate seat next year.

Warren, a Harvard law professor and Oklahoma native, has met with top Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, and is working with two prominent political advisers to Gov. Deval Patrick, the Bay State's first African-American governor. Warren also declared on a political blog Thursday that she'll continue "fighting for the middle class" and hinted she may undertake a "listening tour" of the state.

"I spent years working against special interests and have the battle scars to show it — and I have no intention of stopping now," she wrote on the liberal blog Blue Mass Group. "It is time for me to think hard about what role I can play next to help rebuild a middle class that has been hacked at, chipped at, and pulled at for more than a generation — and that that is under greater strain every day."

In the coming weeks, Warren wrote, "I want to hear from you about the challenges we face and how we get our economy growing again. I also want to hear your ideas about how we can fix what all of us —regardless of party — know is a badly broken political system. I want to hear your thoughts about how we can make sure that our voices — our families, our friends, and our neighbors — are heard again."

A lightning rod for conservative critics, Warren became a media darling for her outspokenness on consumer issues. Warren was President Barack Obama's choice to construct the nation's first federal-level department to guard consumers against subprime loans, tricky mortgages and hidden credit-card fees.

The CFPB was Warren’s brainchild, and she was repeatedly challenged by Senate Republicans, who said the bureau was unnecessary, would stifle job growth and would restrict access to consumer credit. They also vowed to block Warren or anyone else from running it unless Obama made substantial changes to dilute its power.

Warren had lobbied for the position, but Obama, seeking to avoid a costly battle with the GOP, last month selected Richard Cordray, one of Warren's top lieutenants — fueling speculation that Warren would run against Brown for the Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy, a liberal icon. Activists on the left launched a movement to draft Warren and raised $45,000 for her war chest.

Political analysts say Warren would have an uphill battle if she decides to fight Brown: He has millions in the bank, strong name recognition as an incumbent and an approval rating above 50 percent, while she has little name recognition even among state Democratic voters and would have to build a campaign from scratch. But Warren's supporters are banking that her profile as a consumer advocate — and her folksy, common-touch personality — would fire the imagination of voters and a party desperate to return Kennedy's seat to Democratic hands.