Actually, two, so there can be—gasp!—a contested Republican primary. Now he needs to hustle to get signatures so he can actually qualify:

Gabriel E. Gomez, a former Navy SEAL and private equity investor, took out nomination papers Monday to run as a Republican in the special election to replace Senator John F. Kerry, according to the office of Secretary of State William F. Galvin.

The move paves the way for Gomez to formally kick off his campaign, and sets up a contested Republican primary, pitting Gomez against State Representative Daniel B. Winslow, a former aide to Governor Mitt Romney…

Gomez, who is unknown but quietly gathering support from top Republicans, will now have until Feb. 27 to collect 10,000 certified signatures from voters to qualify for the April 30 primary.

In Massachusetts, Republicans don’t have a deep bench. In fact, it’s more like a rickety chair. That’s not surprising; it takes a special kind of person to take on a cause that seems lost.

Scott Brown proved it was at least theoretically possible to win, although his election featured exceptionally unusual circumstances: Obamacare anger, special election, telegenic Republican, particularly unpleasant and off-putting Democrat.

The whole thing puts me in mind of this song from the musical “Fiorello,” which I saw and enjoyed on Broadway as a kid. It’s got a lot of clever songs about politics in it, so I’ve never quite figured out why it’s so rarely revived and produced these days. My guess is that people would enjoy it.

Here’s the song “The Bum Won,” which features the New York City Republican Party operatives (yes, they did and still do exist, I suppose) reacting to LaGuardia’s unexpected win in the 1933 mayoral election as a reform Republican (although he could never have been called a conservative):

If you liked that, here’s another old favorite from the show. It’s called “Little Tin Box,” and, as you’ll see, it’s still topical because it’s about a perennial favorite, corruption. Enjoy!: