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A Whole Bunch Of People Might Run For California's Open Senate Seat
AP/Nick Ut Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California). It's still early, but the impending retirement of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) could set off a particularly wild race to replace her in 2016.
Ambitious Democrats in the Golden State have been stymied in recent years, as t he top statewide offices have been held by longtime incumbents or de-facto incumbents. Both Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have served in the Senate since the early '90s, and Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who served as governor in the '70s, successfully ran for the same office again in 2010 and 2014.
However, after Boxer announced her decision not to run for another term in 2016 on Thursday, a large number of Democrats seem to have started thinking about running in the left-leaning state.
Daily Kos Elections gave the following list of potential candidates for the Democratic side of the aisle:
• Rep. Karen Bass
• Rep. Xavier Becerra
• Treasurer John Chiang
• Rep. John Garamendi
• Attorney General Kamala Harris
• Former Rep. Jane Harman
• Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (His office answered "no comment" when asked about his plans.)
• Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones
• San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo
• Former Treasurer Bill Lockyer
• Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom
• Secretary of State Alex Padilla
• Rep. Raul Ruiz
• Rep. Loretta Sanchez (She did not rule out a run on Thursday.)
• Rep. Adam Schiff
• Los Angeles County Supervisor and former US Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis
• Rep. Jackie Speier
• Former State Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg
• Billionaire Tom Steyer (Sources close to him say he's interested.)
• Former Rep. Ellen Tauscher
• Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (Sources close to him say he's "seriously considering" a run.)
• Former Controller Steve Westly
• Controller Betty Yee
And for the Republicans:
• Former Rep. Mary Bono
• 2014 gubernatorial nominee Neel Kashkari
• Wealthy physicist Charles Munger
• Former Rep. Doug Ose
• Former Insurance Commissioner and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner
• Rep. Ed Royce
• Former state party chair Duf Sundheim (He says he's "seriously exploring" a bid.)
• Fresno Mayor and 2014 controller nominee Ashley Swearengin
• Former eBay CEO and 2010 gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman
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