Those hungry for a liberal revival have seen the election over the last 14 months of Elizabeth Warren to the US Senate and Bill de Blasio as mayor of New York as a potent one-two punch from the left that signals the rise of a new, more muscular progressive politics in the country.

On one level, it seems laughable to think of Massachusetts and New York City as national bellwethers of much of anything. Liberal outliers seems like a much more fitting political typology. But in a 5,700-word essay in September in The Daily Beast, Peter Beinart managed to make at least a decent case that Warren and de Blasio represent the “rise of the new New Left.” Beinart argued that we are at the end of a 40-year era in national politics that was defined by the politics of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, whose “third way” approach was less a direct rebuke of Reaganism than a Democratic version of its main tenets. He suggested that the rise of candidates such as Warren and de Blasio signaled a broader shift in political outlook that was likely to ripple far beyond the coastal havens of liberalism.

But do the two rising Democratic Party stars actually represent the same strain of liberal thought? No, says Noam Scheiber in The New Republic. He makes the counterintuitive case that Warren represents a brand of liberalism that is more radical than de Blasio’s — and one with greater national appeal. Though much has been made of de Blasio’s “tale of two cities” campaign theme and his vow to raise taxes on those earning more than $500,000 a year to fund universal pre-kindergarten, Scheiber says his soak-the-rich approach is actually more accepting of the basic rules of the road than Warren’s. It may not be coincidental that de Blasio’s constituents include the sultans of Wall Street.

De Blasio, Scheiber writes, “implicitly accepts ‘the system’- which in New York means an economy built around the financial sector and the real estate industry – and wants to mitigate its least desirable effects. Or, put differently, de Blasio accepts that today’s rich and powerful will continue to be rich and powerful; he just thinks they should do more to help the rest of us.” He says Warren’s message, with its critique of banking and Wall Street regulations, is less about getting the rich to share some of their wealth than it is about rewriting the financial rules in ways aimed at helping the middle class. “She wants to upend a fundamentally corrupt system, one in which big banks and other interests have coopted the apparatus of government,” writes Scheiber.

Scheiber points out that some have even taken to calling de Blasio’s approach, with its acceptance of Wall Street’s vital importance to the city, “Bloombergism with a populist mask.” He says Warren’s approach, on the other hand, is much more threatening to the established order. What’s more, he says, it has much broader national appeal because it hits a chord with voters who are increasingly distrustful of government and the idea that it’s on their side.

One place to gauge whether Scheiber is right may be South Dakota — which Republicans carried by 18 points in 2012 — where he says polls show an obscure Democrat within striking distance of the state’s Republican former governor in the race for an open US Senate seat. Scheiber says the Democratic hopeful has been hammering away at the idea that government has been hijacked by “big-money interests,” a Warren-like message that Scheiber argues is getting traction in unlikely places.

–MICHAEL JONAS  

BEACON HILL

With two months remaining in winter, the state’s snow removal budget has already been nearly depleted.

Gov. Deval Patrick plans to unveil a series of initiatives, including the hiring of a state climatologist and a $40 million grant program, to help Massachusetts prepare for the fallout from climate change, the Associated Press reports.

When trouble strikes, Patrick all too often evades and deflects, the Salem News says in an editorial.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

A fire of unknown origin destroys what remains of a 19th century paper mill on the Merrimack River in Lawrence. The building has a murky tax history, reports the Eagle-Tribune.

The Rockland representative on the South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp., the quasi-public board overseeing the Southfield development project at the former naval air base in Weymouth, has proposed dissolving the board and have each town take responsibility for development in their portion of the base.

A brother and sister under age 10 in Franklin get trapped in a hope chest and die, the Associated Press reports.

A librarian in Uxbridge gets into a heated debate with the Board of Selectmen over the value of libraries, the Telegram & Gazette reports.

The Braintree Town Council suspended Town Clerk and former mayoral candidate Joseph Powers amid growing tension between the board and Powers’s office. No reason was given for the action.

Marty Walsh doesn’t think he’ll be in Boston City Hall for 20 years, although he admits that “I might regret” that vow “later on.”

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

Federal investigators say they don’t believe Internal Revenue Service officials broke any laws in scrutinizing conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, the New York Times reports.

A group of nine local and national foundations has agreed to give Detroit at least $330 million to help with its pension obligation and save the city from selling off its art collection. Meanwhile, another Detroit group tries to lure writers to the struggling city with free rent and ultimately a free house, Governing reports.

Forget about Bridgegate, time for Sandygate: The US Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general is auditing the decision to award a $25 million Jersey Shore tourism advertising contract to a firm that made political contributions to New Jersey politicians. The other difference between the two finalists vying to lure tourists to beach communities after Hurricane Sandy? One proposed featuring Gov. Chris Christie in the ads; the other did not. Guess who got the contract? Tom Keane says Christie followed the damage-control script “perfectly” with his “let-it-all-hang-out” press conference — as long as he actually did let it all hang out. Two Democratic-led legislative panels will probe the bridge scandal. New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait argues that the sheer number of scandals swirling around Christie will doom his presidential hopes, “simply [because] Christie appears to be genuinely corrupt on a scale that is rare for a modern top-tier presidential candidate.”

House and Senate negotiators unveil a budget to keep the federal government open for the next 9 months.

ELECTIONS

Attorney General Martha Coakley calls on the Legislature to pass an increase in the minimum wage without tying it to unemployment insurance reform. She also takes a shot at Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker for suggesting alternative approaches, State House News reports.

Gubernatorial candidate Evan Falchuk explains his rationale for running under the banner of the United Independent Party.

The Herald puts the legalized marijuana question to the gubernatorial field, but finds no takers.

Donald Trump considers running for governor of New York.

CASINOS

Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo, in a state of the city address, calls the agreement with Mohegan Sun and Suffolk Downs “an extraordinary deal” for the city that will bring in $40 million a year and actually reduce traffic congestion, the Item reports.

Samesies! Boston Mayor Marty Walsh wants his city to get all the casino goodies that had been been part of a host agreement reached before East Boston voters struck down a casino in November and Suffolk Downs moved all the proposed gambling to the Revere side of their site.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

The old Berkshire Hathaway mill building in New Bedford where legendary investor Warren Buffett began his career has fallen victim to the wrecking ball.

Paul McMorrow writes that Allston‘s forlorn rail yards are ripe for a makeover.

The Peabody Licensing Board outlaws the serving of alcohol after 10 p.m. at Oliveira’s Steak House after a series of incidents, the Salem News reports.

EDUCATION

New Bedford’s first-year superintendent has begun implementing a turnaround plan for the struggling high school, including replacing half the administration and staff .

The owners of a popular music school in Haverhill are indicted on charges of child endangerment after a former voice teacher is charged with impregnating a 14-year-old pupil, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

A court ruling will wind down desegregation funds in three Little Rock school districts.

HEALTH CARE

The top executive at Partners HealthCare System, whose acquisition plans are under scrutiny because of charges that the expansion-minded health care behemoth is a big driver of the state’s high health care costs, argues at a big San Francisco conference that their growth can have just the opposite effect.

Muchas problemas with the Obamacare website.

TRANSPORTATION

State transportation officials once again readjusted the hours of the Southeast Expressway’s HOV “zipper lane” after determining the earlier change to relieve congestion from the closing of the Callahan Tunnel only made northbound traffic worse.

In the face of blistering charges of employment bias from federal authorities, the MBTA is nearing an agreement with the feds on revamping employment practices.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

The Nature Conservancy, UMass Dartmouth, and fishermen are collaborating on research designed to figure out where Atlantic cod are spawning off the Massachusett shore, the Gloucester Times reports.

Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan says he will sue if the former owner of the Brayton Point power plant does not include the city in settlement payments from a consent decree even though officials filed the application after the deadline.

A new Columbia University study finds that the public often bases its views on climate change on what is happening in the weather at any given time and faulty memories of past cold snaps or heat waves.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

WBUR’s David Boeri examines the life and death of Ibragim Todashev, who was allegedly shot and killed by a Boston FBI agent during an interview in Orlando, Florida.

A suspended Peabody police officer is acquitted of charges that he molested his former stepdaughter and showed her pornography, the Salem News reports.

The accuser in the Rep. Carlos Henriquez domestic assault trial testifies.

RELIGION

Pope Francis tackles a Vatican bureaucracy that makes Washington look like a night at the campfire.

MEDIA

Former Boston Phoenix editor Peter Kadzis has been named senior editor at WGBH News.

Bill Keller’s New York Times column on a woman with cancer stirs a reader backlash, the Times’s public editor reports.

Jay Leno comes to North Andover, where he grew up, to shoot a 60 Minutes segment about his retirement from the Tonight Show, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

The North Adams Transcript and The Advocate, a Williamstown weekly, plan to merge with The Berkshire Eagle this month.