By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, trying to rally Democrats to her cause, said today that questions about her Native American heritage have shown “how nasty” her campaign against Republican Scott Brown will be, but “I’m ready.” Addressing several hundred at a labor breakfast preceding the annual Democratic State Convention, Warren said: “I know what this fight is going to be about. I know how tough it’s going to be. I’ve gotten a taste of just how nasty it’s going to get.”

By Matt Viser , Globe Staff

Mitt Romney is worth between $190 million and $250 million, a range unchanged from last year, his campaign said late Friday after filing a personal financial disclosure statement with the Federal Election Commission. The Romneys hold vast financial holdings and use a range of investment tools, which were displayed throughout a 20-page filing that was stamped by the FEC at 4:24 p.m. on Friday – typically a time when inconvenient news is released.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Slow job creation and an uptick in the nation’s unemployment rate today provided fuel for Mitt Romney’s complaint that President Obama is mismanaging the nation’s recovery from the Great Recession. “Today’s weak jobs report is devastating news for American workers and American families,” Romney said in a statement. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee added: “It is now clear to everyone that President Obama’s policies have failed to achieve their goals and that the Obama economy is crushing America’s middle class.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

President Obama’s campaign is dispatching several Massachusetts lawmakers to key swing states next week, in a further attempt to draw negative attention to the state’s former governor – and presumptive Republican presidential nominee – Mitt Romney. The campaign is sending several local lawmakers -- Cory Atkins, of Concord; Jeffrey Sanchez, of Boston; and David Linsky, of Natick -- to host events on Monday in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Ohio.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Polls already show that President Obama is destined to win Massachusetts handily this fall, but Mitt Romney’s team showed Thursday that it won’t allow insult on top of that political injury. When word leaked Wednesday afternoon that senior Obama strategist David Axelrod was coming to the State House on Thursday to criticize Romney’s record as governor, Romney’s team quickly mobilized. It organized a counter-rally 90 minutes before Axelrod was to appear and then hung around until the Obama event began.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney on Thursday night praised President Obama for killing Osama bin Laden, even while giving him an overall “F” when grading his term. “I’m sure he has,” Romney told CBS News, when asked whether Obama had done anything well. “I appreciated, for instance, the decision he made to go after Osama bin Laden and to make sure he was executed.” When asked what grade he would give the incumbent he is trying to unseat, he said, “Oh, an F. “

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to supporters this afternoon intended to allay concerns about her handling of questions over whether she claimed Native American status in her academic career. The letter comes after weeks of media coverage, including an admission to the Globe late Wednesday night that she had told Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania that she was Native American, contradicting earlier statements she had made on the subject.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

With the State House once occupied by Mitt Romney as his backdrop, Obama strategist David Axelrod on Thursday denounced what he described as Romney’s failed record as Massachusetts governor. “After selling himself to Massachusetts as an economic savior, the Massachusetts record was alarmingly weak,” Axelrod said. But the campaign event played out more like a battle for political turf than a discussion of policy histories. Axelrod opened his remarks by declaring “it is great to be in Massachusetts, Obama country!”

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Nine Republican lawmakers preempted a Democratic press conference this morning in front of the Massachusetts State House by offering a vigorous defense of former governor Mitt Romney’s record. “President Obama doesn’t have anything positive to say about his own record,” said House minority leader Brad Jones, a North Reading Republican. “So he’s going to go out and vilify his opponent.”

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

With a little selective editing by both presidential campaigns, Governor Deval Patrick helped President Obama and Mitt Romney in the same interview Thursday morning. Shortly after Patrick’s appearance on MSNBC, the Romney campaign began circulating a 30-second clip from a roughly 7-minute interview, in which Patrick defended Bain Capital, the maligned private equity firm Romney ran for 15 years. The Obama campaign began circulating its own, 50-second clip in which the governor accuses Romney of breaking campaign promises.

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

President Obama’s top strategist, David Axelrod, scheduled a morning press conference at the State House. One of Obama’s top surrogates, Governor Deval Patrick, agreed to appear on TV. And the president’s campaign committee released a video putting Mitt Romney’s four-year term as governor in the harshest light possible. Massachusetts, at least for today, will be ground zero for the Democrats’ presidential campaign. Romney is scheduled to be in California, picking up the endorsement of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Democrats have offered a lot of platitudes but succumbed to raw political calculation in recent years as they’ve maneuvered to maintain or regain control over the state’s US Senate seats. Now Governor Deval Patrick has decided to endorse Elizabeth Warren in this year’s Senate race. It gives the impression the Democratic party apparatus - which is controlled by Patrick’s former campaign manager, John Walsh - is not neutral in either this weekend’s party convention or September’s primary election.

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff

For a time today, some of the business leaders deeply involved in Beacon Hill’s ongoing healthcare negotiations were expected to be rubbing elbows with the state’s two most powerful legislators at a private dinner tonight at one of Boston’s swankiest restaurants. House speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray were on the guest list to attend a small gathering in honor of Jack Connors, the retiring chairman of Partners HealthCare, and a major player in the negotiations over the healthcare cost containment legislation.

By Bobby Caina Calvan, Globe Staff

The family of former House Speaker Tip O’Neill will accept a medal honoring the late Massachusetts Democrat for his many years of public service. The medal is being bestowed by the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. O’Neill, who spent three decades in the House and served as Speaker from 1977-87, would have turned 100 this year. He died in 1994.

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick announced his endorsement of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren this afternoon, trying to boost his fellow Democrat as she faces relentless questioning and criticism over her claims to Native American heritage. Patrick and Warren share a chief political adviser, Doug Rubin. Polls have shown Patrick is the state’s most popular politician, recently overtaking Republican US Senator Scott Brown, who Warren is trying to unseat. Warren is heading into the state Democratic convention this Saturday. She has one primary opponent, North Shore immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Mitt Romney has apparently turned on the charm. After enduring months of polling-based reports about his “likeability problem,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee now enjoys his highest favorability rating since January, according to a Washington Post/ABC News survey published Wednesday. Romney owes much of his popularity surge to the women of the GOP. Just last month, only 59 percent of women in Romney’s own party viewed him favorably. Now, the measure is 80 percent -- a 21-point improvement.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

The White House has apologized for President Obama’s reference to a “Polish death camp” during Tuesday’s Medal of Freedom ceremony, but Polish officials remain offended, seeking a “stronger, more pointed” retraction. Poles resent the term for its implication that Poland ran the death camps, when in fact the camps were operated by German Nazis who occupied the country. On its website, the Polish embassy in Washington calls references to “Polish death camps” “factually incorrect slurs.”

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

A new projection of political spending by the Koch brothers puts their organizations’ anticipated expenditures at $400 million, doubling previous expectations and bringing the total for independent conservative groups to about $1 billion. The new figures were reported Wednesday by Politico, which cited officials with knowledge of the groups’ internal operations. That’s just outside money. Romney’s official campaign and the Republican National Committee intend to spend at least $800 million of their own, according to the report.

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

A day that began with renewed questions about whether President Obama was born in America ended with questions about whether Mitt Romney can spell it. Romney held a fundraiser Tuesday with businessman/birther Donald Trump, whose continued suggestion that the president was born in Kenya competed for attention with Romney’s nomination-clinching victory in the Texas primary. Then “Amercia” happened. The Romney campaign released a new app called “With Mitt,” which features several slogans. One reads, “A Better Amercia.”

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has spent much of the past six years running for president, won the Texas primary tonight, giving him enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination and run against President Obama. Romney was declared the Lone Star state winner by the Associated Press shortly after the polls closed at 9 p.m. Eastern time in Texas.