Schakowsky won’t run for Senate

Aaron Blake has the story:

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is set to announce Monday that she will not seek her state’s open Senate seat in 2010.

“I think the next two years present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make progressive change,” she said in a statement, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “I want to devote my energy to help make these things a reality and decided that I simply couldn’t do it if I mounted a campaign for Senate.”

Schakowsky has been mulling the race for months and set Monday as a self-imposed deadline for her decision. In opting not to run, she cited the millions of dollars she would have had to raise.

She told The Hill earlier this year that she would have run for the seat if a special election were held, but that never panned out, and the prospect of risking her House seat by running in the next general election proved a significant deterrent.

Check out her video below.

I’m not that surprised she isn’t running but I do like how she says she could have raised the money and would have had a good chance at winning…

jeremy.jacobs@digital-stage.thehill.com