Senator Debbie Wasserman Schultz in 2016?

scandal
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Is Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the current DNC Chair, considering a bid for U.S. Senate?

A Politico report claims she’s thinking about it.

“Of course she’s considering it,” claims a source in a position to know. “Open Senate seats are pretty rare,” long time supporter Andrew Weinstein told the magazine.

One can almost hear the “year of the woman” calls from Wasserman Schultz now, what with Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket.

Add to that Rubio’s potential run for the GOP nomination, and it is possible to envision what to many on the right is the unthinkable, Senator Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Driving Wasserman Schultz’s interest: the increasing likelihood that Sen. Marco Rubio will run for the White House and that he ultimately won’t seek reelection in 2016, Democratic insiders familiar with her thinking say. Her office wouldn’t discuss her interest in the Senate.

However, she’s not the only possible candidate and maybe not even perceived to be the strongest. Still, running the DNC allows a person to collect a lot of IOUs that might go a long way in a Democrat Senate primary should she opt to run.

Like a number of Democratic insiders — four of whom spoke on condition of anonymity in confirming her Senate interest — Weinstein stressed he wasn’t favoring any potential candidate and didn’t want to appear to slight Rep. Patrick Murphy, who represents Florida’s 18th Congressional District and is considered the most likely Democrat to seek a Senate seat in 2016.

Bonus – there’s also the possibility that Republicans and conservatives might have former GOPer Charlie Crist to kick around just a bit.

Also expressing some interest behind the scenes: former Gov. Charlie Crist, who has lost his past two elections — governor in 2012 and Senate in 2010, the latter against Rubio. Crist, who couldn’t be reached, would be far less likely to run for the Senate again if he had to run against an incumbent Rubio.

The same is likely true of Wasserman Schultz, who’s in a safe seat.

Murphy sits in a far more competitive district, though he defeated his Republican opponent handily in 2014.

For now, at least, it remains a lot of entertaining speculation, which is just part of the game, given the calendar.

Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 3.6 percentage points in Florida, yet the GOP controls the four statewide elected offices based in Tallahassee, one U.S. Senate seat, a supermajority in the state House and a majority in the state Senate — and that’s despite an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment voters approved in 2010.

Presidential election years are much kinder to Florida Democrats: Obama won the state twice, and Sen. Bill Nelson was easily reelected in 2012.

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