By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

A House panel is poised to act against Worcester Democratic state Representative John P. Fresolo, with possible disciplinary measures taken by the full body within days, according to an official briefed on the investigation. The Ethics Committee is expected to recommend the House move against Fresolo, though the severity of its recommendation was unknown on Tuesday afternoon. Also unclear, because committee members are sworn to secrecy, are the charges against Fresolo.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Republican Senate candidate Gabriel E. Gomez is releasing a new television ad that labels his Democratic opponent, Representative Edward J. Markey, “dirty Ed Markey.”

“Negative ads from dirty Ed Markey, smearing Gabriel Gomez, comparing him to bin Laden,” a narrator says in the ad, which shows clips of two of Markey’s ads attacking Gomez. “Now, Markey actually blames Gomez for the Newtown shooting. Disgusting. Thirty-seven years in Congress. Dirty Ed Markey.”

Despite what the ad says, Markey has not blamed Gomez for the Newtown shooting. Markey has released an ad that highlights Gomez’s opposition to an assault weapons ban and to limits on high-capacity magazines, “like the ones used in the Newtown school shooting.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

A congressional delegation is planning to travel to Russia next week to meet with government and counterterrorism officials to discuss the ongoing investigations into the Boston Marathon bombings. The delegation, which includes Representative Bill Keating, a Bourne Democrat, is planning to examine some of the apparent gaps in intelligence sharing between the United States and Russia. The Russians had warned the US in 2011 that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a potential extremist.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

The campaign of US Senate hopeful Edward J. Markey held a conference call today pushing back against attacks from Republican Gabriel E. Gomez that the Markey was weak on homeland security.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Republican Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez campaigned today with Senator John McCain, going on offense against Democrat Edward J. Markey for his votes on issues of homeland security.

At a VFW hall in Dorchester with the 2008 GOP presidential nominee standing by his side, Gomez attacked Markey for voting against a 2004 resolution expressing sympathy to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a similar 2006 measure.

Markey was one of 16 congressmen to vote against the 2004 resolution and one of 22 to vote against the 2006 resolution.

The attack represented something of a pivot for the Gomez campaign, attempting to put their Democratic opponent on the defensive.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

He is a governor, former corporate executive, and onetime federal prosecutor. Now, Deval Patrick can add another title to his resume: grandfather. The governor’s office announced today that Patrick’s eldest daughter, Sarah Baker Patrick Morgese, and her husband, Marco Morgese, welcomed a baby boy this morning. Gianluca Noah Patrick Morgese arrived two months early, weighing 2 pounds 8 ounces. He was born in San Francisco.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Republican Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez is set to knock Democratic US Representative Edward J. Markey on Monday as “being out of the mainstream,” citing some of the congressman’s votes on issues of homeland security.

At a campaign rally Monday with Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, Gomez will ding Markey for voting against a 2004 resolution expressing sympathy to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a similar 2006 resolution, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks provided by his campaign.

“One thing that I have never understood is why my opponent...was one of the only congressmen in America who voted against resolutions of Congress to [h]onor the [v]ictims of the 9/11 attacks,” Gomez will say, according to the remarks.

Markey was one of 16 congressmen to vote against the 2004 resolution and one of 22 to vote against the 2006 resolution.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Today, both Democrat Edward J. Markey and Republican Gabriel E. Gomez said they would participate in a June 5 US Senate debate sponsored by WBZ-TV and the Boston Globe.

In separate interviews with the Globe on the campaign trail, both confirmed their attendance at the forum, which appears likely to be the first debate of the short general election campaign for US Senate.

No other debates have been agreed to by both campaigns and each has accused its rival of debate-dodging in recent days.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

After days of requests from reporters and his GOP opponent, Democrat US Representative Edward J. Markey said he will release his tax returns “in the very near future” to match the financial disclosure provided by his rival in the US Senate campaign, Republican Gabriel E. Gomez.

“I’m going to go back as far as he did and I’m going to release my tax returns,” Markey said on WCVB-TV’s On the Record. But he still declined to commit to a day for their release saying only that he would provide them, “in the very near future.”

The Globe has also repeatedly requested a review of tax returns from Markey, who has been in Congress for 36 years. Spokesman Andrew Zucker declined again on Friday to commit to a date for the release, though he, too, assured the disclosure would be made soon.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

After days of tough questioning, Republican Gabriel E. Gomez went after his Democratic rival for US Senate, saying US Representative Edward M. Markey has been absent from the campaign trail and “hiding” from the controversies roiling the Democratic administration in Washington, D.C.

“We’re in the midst of probably the worst scandals of a lifetime down in D.C.,” Gomez said, citing the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for audits, the Justice Department’s seizure of media phone records and the administration’s conflicting reports on Benghazi.

“Where has congressman Markey been on all this stuff? I don’t know. He’s been hiding,” Gomez said, after campaigning at Mul’s Diner in South Boston.

By Julia Edwards, Globe Correspondent

WASHINGTON -- Republicans on Thursday dropped their efforts to stall President Obama’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, and her chief antagonist in the Senate promised to help her avoid a filibuster as the confirmation battle heads to its final step.

The nomination of Gina McCarthy was approved by the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works by a party-line vote of 10-8, with all Democrats favoring her and Republicans voting against her. The nomination now goes to the full Senate.

McCarthy’s prospects for heading the agency may have received the biggest boost after Senator David Vitter, the Louisiana Republican who had been her chief antagonist, dropped his threat to block her nomination on the Senate floor.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Senator John McCain, coming to town Monday to raise money for Republican Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez, will also hold a rally for his fellow Navy veteran. The Monday-morning rally, at a Boston Police VFW post in Dorchester, will take place just before McCain helps raise money downtown at a high-dollar event. Donations collected there will go toward a joint fund-raising committee set up between the Gomez campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

US Representative Edward J. Markey today launched the first negative TV ad of the Massachusetts campaign for US Senate, attacking his Republican opponent, Gabriel E. Gomez, on gun control.

“Gomez is against banning assault weapons,” a deep-voiced male narrator says, before a video clip plays of Gomez saying as much. “And Gomez is against banning high-capacity magazines, like the ones used in the Newtown School shooting,” the narrator says.

“The more you know, the clearer the choice,” the narrator adds, ending the ad.

The spot works to juxtapose the candidates’ positions on the contentious issue, with the narrator noting Markey’s opposition to the National Rifle Association.

Markey has made gun control a marquee issue of his campaign.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

A big union is putting money behind Democratic Senate nominee Edward J. Markey in the first expenditure by an outside group in the race since the April 30 Republican and Democratic primary elections. The Service Employees International Union Committee On Political Education spent $340,000 in support of Markey this week, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The money was spent on canvassing services for the general election, according to the records.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

For Governor Deval Patrick, it’s become as routine as signing legislation or greeting school kids. The rumors pop up about him eyeing national political service, and Patrick shoots them back to earth.

This time, it was speculation, stoked by the Chicago Sun-Times, that Patrick might replace embattled US Attorney General Eric Holder if he were to depart the Obama administration.

Patrick, a former senior Justice Department official and close friend of President Obama, would be a natural choice. His term expires at the end of 2014, he has made no public plans for life post-Beacon Hill, and he is considered to be in the large prospective field for 2016 presidential contenders.

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

Trying to rein in a growing controversy over the tax break he received on his Cohasset home, Republican US Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez told reporters today that he has paid the appraiser the $1,000 fee he allegedly owes.

Speaking to reporters after a press conference, Gomez said he paid the bill this morning, though he was “surprised to hear about this $1,000 bill after eight years. I frankly, I don’t even recall the bill.”

The appraiser who claimed he had never been paid filed a complaint in Small Claims Court Tuesday, the Globe reported today.

Gomez indicated that the appraiser was motivated by past Democratic donations and suggested he was propping up Gomez’s Democratic opponent in the Senate race, US Representative Edward J. Markey.

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

When Republican US Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez was seeking a lucrative historical tax deduction for his Cohasset home, he rejected the first appraisal he received because it was too low, and then refused to pay the appraiser’s bill, according to court records.

That appraiser, Shaun Fitzgerald, said Gomez hired him in late 2005 to determine the amount he could deduct on his federal tax return in exchange for agreeing not to alter the home’s facade. But Fitzgerald said Gomez then failed to pay the $1000 appraiser’s fee.

Fitzgerald filed a small claims suit in Quincy District Court Tuesday. In it, he requested payment and attached his appraisal report that estimated the value of the deduction at $245,640.

By Joshua Miller and Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff

US Senate hopefuls Edward J. Markey and Gabriel E. Gomez on Wednesday joined the bipartisan chorus ripping the Internal Revenue Service over the agency’s reported targeting of small-government groups for greater scrutiny. Both nominees steered remarks about the three controversies engulfing Washington away from criticism of President Obama and trained on the specific agencies caught up in the firestorms. “Whoever did this ought to be found and fired immediately,” Markey told the Globe in a telephone interview, referring to the reports of politically driven IRS actions. “The Constitution explicitly states it protects your right, whether it’s by race, gender, religion, or political belief, to have all the freedom in the world that you want,” Gomez said at a campaign event in Jamaica Plain. “For the government to be intruding the way it did is beyond scary.”

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

With recent legislation to strengthen background checks and ban assault weapons blocked in Congress, Representative John Tierney, a Salem Democrat, plans to introduce a gun bill Wednesday evening that would require handgun manufacturers to personalize their weapons to make them impossible to fire if they fall into the wrong hands. The bill, the Personalized Handgun Safety Act of 2013, mandates within two years that newly manufactured handguns be equipped with the technology that allows the guns to only work in the hands of their owners or other authorized users. Manufacturers that do not meet the standards could be held liable. And individuals or businesses selling older handguns must have them retrofitted with personalization technology within three years after the bill is enacted, at the expense of the federal government.

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

Representative Niki Tsongas, back from her fifth trip to Afghanistan, warned Wednesday that the strides made by Afghan women could be jeopardized by potential negotiations to reach a long-term peace agreement with the notoriously anti-female Taliban. “I am very concerned that the gains for women will be traded away given the Taliban’s fierce intent on marginalizing women, if not worse,” she said in an interview. “There is a lot of concern about the reconciliation process.”

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

State Senate leaders unveiled a $33.92 billion annual budget today that boosts spending on services for the elderly and special education, but falls well short of Governor Deval Patrick’s plan to provide universal access to childcare and broadly expand the state’s aging transportation network.

Overall, the Senate plan would increase spending by 4.4 percent, compared to Patrick’s plan, which would hike spending by 6.9 percent.

Compared with the House proposal, the Senate provides more money for K-12 education, but not as much for higher education, while also rejecting House plans to crack down on welfare fraud.

Senators will debate the blueprint next week, and then reconcile their differences with the House, which approved its version of the state budget last month. Patrick must then act on the Legislature’s agreement by July 1, when the new budget year begins.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Representative Edward J. Markey on Tuesday disinvited a Confederate flag defender, former television star, and onetime House colleague from playing music at a Washington, D.C., fund-raiser hours before it was scheduled to begin.

Markey’s US Senate campaign said the Malden Democrat was “completely unaware” that former Georgia Democratic congressman Ben Jones, who played the role of mechanic “Cooter Davenport” on the “Dukes of Hazzard” television show, has long been an ardent proponent of the Stars and Bars as a symbol of Southern culture.

Jones, who describes himself as a veteran of the civil rights movement, publicly sparred in 2002 with former Virginia governor Douglas Wilder over Jones’s use of the flag in his campaign for a Virginia congressional seat.

The House Agriculture Committee is readying a farm bill that contains a $20.5 billion cut over 10 years to the food stamp program, drawing objections from a member of the committee, Representative James McGovern, Democrat of Worcester. But McGovern is unlikely to halt the measure’s progress, because even some of his fellow minority Democrats on the committee want to keep the bill on track because of their desire to continue agricultural subsidies in rural districts.

By Wesley Lowery, Globe staff

Republican US Senate hopeful Gabriel Gomez climbed the half a dozen wooden stairs and entered a brown and yellow Braintree home early Tuesday afternoon.

Once inside, the GOP senate candidate spent about half an hour seated across the kitchen table from members of the Lear family, Braintree residents and voters who said they are considering backing Gomez despite having voted in the Democratic primary.

tical observers believe winning over voters like the Lear family -- just a handful of the 230,000 Massachusetts residents who voted for Stephen Lynch in the US Senate special election primary -- will be vital in order for Gomez to craft a coalition capable of carrying him to victory.

By Julia Edwards, Globe Correspondent

The House Agriculture Committee is readying a farm bill that contains a $20.5 billion cut over 10 years to the food stamp program, drawing objections from a member of the committee, Representative James McGovern, Democrat of Worcester. But McGovern is unlikely to halt the measure’s progress, because even some of his fellow minority Democrats on the committee want to keep the bill on track because of their desire to continue agricultural subsidies in rural districts.

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Representative Edward J. Markey has asked a former “Dukes of Hazzard” actor who has written in defense of displaying the Confederate flag not to perform at a fund-raiser scheduled in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night, his campaign said. A former Democratic congressman from Georgia, Ben Jones played the role of mechanic “Cooter Davenport” on the “Dukes of Hazzard” television show. Last year, NASCAR canceled a planned parade lap by the “General Lee,” the car featured on the show, at Phoenix International Raceway due to worries about reactions to the car’s roof featuring the Civil War banner of the South. Jones posted a letter on his website saying NASCAR had “chosen to dishonor those Southerners who fought and died in that terrible conflict by caving to ‘political correctness’ and the uninformed concerns of corporate sponsors.”

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

Drew O’Brien, a longtime Boston political hand, will rejoin his former boss, Secretary of State John Kerry, working in Washington on a global partnerships program launched under former secretary Hillary Clinton. A longtime top aide to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, O’Brien was Kerry’s in-state chief of staff. At Foggy Bottom, he will be the State Department’s Special Representative for Global Partnerships Initiatives, which leverages public-private relationships to help provide assistance like clean water and cookstoves around the world. “I’m absolutely excited by this opportunity the secretary offered,” O’Brien told the Globe. “And I’m looking forward to working with him once again.”

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON — Members of the state’s congressional delegation plan to gather at Legal Sea Foods in Washington on Wednesday evening to raise money for Boston Marathon bombing victims.

The One Fund event invitation lists suggested donations starting at $1,000 for “friends,” progressing to $10,000 for “host committee.” Roger Berkowitz, owner of Legal Sea Foods, is listed as honorary chair, along with the delegation, Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, and Governor Deval Patrick. Menino’s office said the mayor, who has been struggling with health problems, will not be able to travel. Patrick is scheduled to be in Ireland, on an official visit.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the Massachusetts State House on Monday and met with Governor Deval Patrick.

Just before 5 p.m., Cameron stepped out of a vehicle in a massive motorcade, made his way up to the middle landing of the State House steps and shook hands with Patrick. The staircase is almost exclusively reserved for visiting foreign dignitaries and departing governors.

Surrounded by a security detail, the two made their way into the State House, where Patrick could be heard telling the prime minister about the building’s history. As they walked along a red carpet through the rotunda under the golden dome, Cameron could be seen pointing and nodding at historical displays.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Senate hopeful Gabriel E. Gomez today predicted that his campaign would be victorious, regardless of whether he receives help from Washington Republicans. His comments came on the heels of the news that US Senator John McCain of Arizona is scheduled to come to Massachusetts on behalf of Gomez’s campaign. “I’m my own person and I’m going to win this election with or without D.C.,’ he said at a press conference after a visit to a manufacturing plant in Woburn. Gomez said he was honored to have McCain come to Massachusetts for him, but noted he disagreed with the 2008 GOP presidential nominee on some issues.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

US Representative Michael E. Capuano on Monday said he was troubled by reports that the Internal Revenue Service had aggressively pursued conservative organizations, and called them reminiscient of the Nixon administration. On the growing focus in Congress on the attacks on the US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya last year, Capuano said the death of four Americans there raised “legitimate questions.” But he said, based on the information available, he expected the issue to end up becoming “the typical right-left type of nonsense you see on one station, but eventually falls off the others.” He said the recent reports that IRS targeted small-government groups for extra scrutiny were in a different category. Asked to discuss the reports, Capuano said that if the accounts were true, “There’s no way in the world, I’m going to defend that. Hell, I spent my youth vilifying the Nixon administration for doing the same thing.”

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Senator John McCain is scheduled to come to Boston next week to raise campaign cash for a fellow Navy veteran, Republican Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez, according to an invitation to the event. The high-dollar event at the Fairmont Copley Plaza on May 20 will command $37,600 per person for a VIP roundtable, $15,000 per person for a photo reception, and $2,600 for a noon lunch. McCain’s interjection in the race comes as Republican operatives privately wonder whether national donations will come to Gomez’s assistance as the private equity investor and former Navy SEAL does battle with the Democratic nominee, US Representative Edward J. Markey. At the same time, Gomez has strived to avoid being tarred with the conservative label cultivated by Republicans in other parts of the country but unpopular in the Bay State.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

A new web video from the National Republican Senatorial Committee hits Senate hopeful Edward J. Markey for his involvement along with more than 300 other members in a check-bouncing scandal more than 20 years ago. Although the video is currently not backed by any money online or on TV, the fifty-second video gives a window into a potential line of attack Republicans may use against the longtime congressman in paid advertisements in the run-up to the June 25 special election.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the city is “well-protected” and large celebrations like those for July 4 will go on as planned, despite last month’s lethal Boston Marathon bombings. Residents and visitors, however, should expect more surveillance cameras than in the past. “What you’ll see at these events is more temporary cameras,” Menino said in an interview that aired today on WCVB-TV. “That’s one thing that I’m advocating for: In large events, bring in some temporary cameras so you’re watching the event.”

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

A Democratic bill introduced in the Senate and House on Thursday would prevent student loan rates from doubling as scheduled in July, while capping them in the future and permitting students to refinance current loans to a lower rate. The Responsible Student Loan Solutions Act would overhaul the student loan rate structure and determine interest rates based on the cost of operating the programs. Doing so, legislators say, would allow students to benefit from the lowest interest rate that the federal government could offer.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Tensions over a possible breakdown in intelligence-sharing between the FBI and Massachusetts authorities erupted in public Thursday, when Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis testified in Congress that federal agents never advised local officials of their 2011 investigation of a Boston Marathon bombing suspect. Davis said he was first told about the FBI’s previous interest in Tamerlan Tsarnaev after the FBI identified his body following a confrontation with police in Watertown. Davis said he was not previously informed of the earlier FBI investigation into Tsarnaev or Tsarnaev’s 2012 travel to the Dagestan region of Russia, even though there are three Boston police detectives and one sergeant assigned to the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force.

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Democrats went on the attack against Republican US Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez for a $281,500 tax deduction he took in 2005 for an historic preservation deal on his Cohasset home, calling on the candidate to release the details of the agreement. “It seems outrageous,’’ said John Walsh, the state Democratic Party chairman. He called on Gomez to make public his tax returns for that year and other details about how the deduction was calculated on the home that the candidate and his wife bought for $2.1 million in November 2004.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick will travel to the Republic of Ireland next week, joining state Senate President Therese Murray for a portion of her 10-day trade mission to the region. Patrick is slated to spend three days in Dublin and meet with the prime minister, the minister for foreign affairs, and trade and business leaders in the country, his office said today. Murray is slated to meet political and business officials in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. She will attend events in Dublin, Belfast, and other cities, her office said.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

A new poll released this morning by WBUR found Democratic US Representative Edward J. Markey leading Republican Gabriel E. Gomez by 8 points among likely voters in their race for the US Senate. Among those voters who lean one way or the other — that is, those who intially don’t have a preference but pick a candidate when pressed by the interviewer — Markey led 46 percent to Gomez’s 38 percent. Without leaners, the poll found a 6-point race, with Markey leading 41 percent to 35 percent.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Not long after Gabriel Schoenfeld formally joined Mitt Romney’s campaign, he writes in a new tell-all book, he was in a conference room brainstorming about the presidential candidate’s economic plan. After initially talking about the substance of the plan, the book recounts, top adviser Stuart Stevens interjected to ask about whether it should be distributed in a bound book, compact discs, or through a USB memory stick. “The strategists, as I was to learn over the ensuing months, were supremely indifferent to substance,” Schoenfeld writes in the book, which was provided to the Globe by the publisher. “It was this indifference that governed their peculiar personnel choices.”

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Representative Edward J. Markey heads into the general election with a significant advantage over Republican nominee Gabriel E. Gomez in their Senate race, according to a poll released Wednesday that shows the Malden Democrat with a 17-point lead.

Markey pulled 52 percent support to Gomez’s 35 percent in the Suffolk University/7News survey of 500 likely voters who showed some knowledge that the election is scheduled for June 25. The poll, which Suffolk said had an error margin of plus-or-minus 4.4 percent, was conducted May 4-7.

Republicans are hoping that Gomez can resurrect the fleeting phenomenon that facilitated former Senator Scott Brown’s 2010 surprising victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley, a fresh GOP face toppling a heavily favored Democrat.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

A fired-up Governor Deval Patrick praised Democratic US Senate hopeful Edward J. Markey at a political gathering on Wednesday night and called for a grassroots, door-to-door campaign to elect him.

In addition, Patrick pushed back against a GOP narrative that Republican nominee Gabriel E. Gomez is the new, fresh, non-politician Massachusetts is looking for.

“There’s a lot of talk right now in this election about new faces, fresh faces. I like that. I used to be one!” Patrick, in his second term, said to laughter in a packed pub in downtown Boston.

“But new isn’t always better,” the governor said. “Sometimes it’s just new. What I want is better. I want a good heart. I want somebody who sees us.”

By Julia Edwards, Globe Correspondent

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a Republican-backed bill Wednesday that would allow employers to offer their employees the option of paid ``comp time’’ off instead of overtime pay.

The measure is unlikely to pass in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but it carries political value for Republicans who can argue they were attempting to give employers and employees a broader range of compensation options. Republicans — who are seeking support from more women voters — call the bill fair and “pro-family.”

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today knocked Republican Senate hopeful Gabriel E. Gomez for saying he was “never associated” with a group on whose behalf he appeared on national television. “Gabriel Gomez is shamelessly trying to mislead voters about his role as the spokesman of a secretly funded special interest group that attacked President Obama over the killing of Osama bin Laden,” DSCC spokesman Justin Barasky said in a statement. Gomez was a guest on MSNBC in August 2012 speaking on behalf of the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, a group that made a video criticizing Obama for how he handled the aftermath of the raid that killed Laden. Gomez also was quoted in a Reuters article that month speaking about his involvement with OPSEC.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Arguing that it is a bedrock middle class issue, Senator Elizabeth Warren today introduced legislation that would significantly drop the interest on student loans for one year while the federal government works on a longer term overhaul, which she promised to lead.

Warren, a Democrat, had campaigned heavily on the issue of student loans in her election last year and decided to make the student loan bill her first piece of stand-alone legislation in the Senate.

Federal loan rates are scheduled under federal law to double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Warren’s bill would let students borrow instead at the rate big banks pay to the federal reserve, which she said is currently about .75 percent, between July 1 2013 and July 1 2014. The rates would go up again after that unless Congress acts again.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, best known for his extramarital affair with a woman from Argentina, won a rough-and-tumble US House race Tuesday night. But he’ll get no congratulatory note from fellow Republican Gabriel E. Gomez, the GOP nominee for Senate in Massachusetts. In a statement late Tuesday night Gomez said he didn’t pay much attention to the race, but zinged Sanford anyway. “Mark Sanford seems pathetic to me,” Gomez said. “This guy is another career politician who needs to go get a real job in the real world.”

By Jim O’Sullivan, Globe Staff

US Representative Edward J. Markey plans to launch the first television ad of the Senate general election campaign on Wednesday, a 30-second spot highlighting his work on telecommunications policy.

The ad credits Markey, running for the seat against private equity investor Gabriel Gomez, for his work on the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which encouraged cable companies to establish broadband networks.

“It’s hard to believe. But 20 years ago, almost no one had broadband. Smart phones hadn’t been invented yet,” Markey tells the viewer, from the screen of a smartphone. “Facebook? Skype? Google? The stuff of science fiction.”

Gomez has criticized Markey for not discussing jobs and the economy, as Markey has spent much of the week publicly urging Gomez to sign a campaign finance pledge.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Republican Gabriel E. Gomez supports instituting a no-fly zone over Syria, while Democrat Edward J. Markey opposes taking that action for now. In interviews with the Globe today, the two Senate hopefuls weighed in on the growing conflict in the Middle East. “I think that we’ve been slow on what we’ve been doing in Syria,” Gomez said. Markey, alternatively, advocated continued caution in growing US involvement in the civil war-torn country.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

One of Mitt Romney’s former campaign aides is planning to release a new book next week that is being pitched as an insider’s account that provides “an unblinking look at the tactical and strategic miscalculations” made by the former presidential candidate. The book – “A Bad Day on the Romney Campaign: An Insider’s Account” – is written by Gabriel Schoenfeld, who says he was a senior adviser to Romney from December 2010 through November 2012. “The book illuminates the chain of errors that ultimately contributed to Romney’s defeat,” reads a summary of the 66-page book, which is being published next Tuesday as a $2.99 e-book by the Penguin Group.

By Joshua Miller, Globe Staff

Republican US Senate nominee Gabriel E. Gomez today received the endorsement of his former GOP rival, Michael J. Sullivan. “I’m excited about offering my support to Gabriel Gomez,” said Sullivan, a former US attorney. “This is a good and decent person who wants to serve for all the right reasons.” At the endorsement event, held at a Boston park, Sullivan went on the attack against the Democratic nominee, US Representative Edward J. Markey.