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Tom Carper to Harry Reid: Pick 2 chairmen

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper has a potential solution to Harry Reid’s problem of finding a Senate committee campaign chairmen: Pick two.

In an interview Thursday, Carper told POLITICO he suggested to the majority leader that he select a chairman and vice-chairman to lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee through the 2012 cycle in order to lessen the workload and make the slot more appealing.

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“I suggested to Harry . . . you might want to consider having a chair and a vice chair,” Carper said, adding that Reid did not appear to embrace the idea. “I just think we need to think outside the box.”

Sen. Reid said Thursday he was in no rush to name a successor to outgoing chair Sen. Bob Menendez and said the pick would likely not be announced until the week after Christmas.

“It’s gotten to be a full-time job. It’s hard for anybody with a spouse or children to take on the responsibilities,” Carper said, listing Sens. Mark Warner and Michael Bennet as potential prospects.

Both Warner and Bennet have repeatedly denied any interest in the position.

Carper, who said he is already gearing up to seek a third term, is one of 21 Democrats who will be forced to defend their seats in 2012.

Despite speculation, Carper told POLITICO he’s planned to run for reelection “as long as I’ve remembered.”

“Read my lips: You bet,” Carper said of defending his seat.

He dismissed published reports that he was suffering from health problems, challenging anyone who makes the assertion to “go out and run a half marathon with me.”

The former governor said he still works out almost every day, and runs or bikes more than a dozen miles each week. He said he already has his 2012 political organization in place and never closed his campaign headquarters.

In 2006, Carper was overwhelmingly reelected with 70 percent of the vote.

Carper said the recent Senate race that thrust his home state into the national spotlight between Sen. Chris Coons and tea party sensation Christine O’Donnell offered lessons for his own campaign in 2012. “I think we have to be fully mindful that we have three counties and we can’t take any of them for granted," he said.

O’Donnell ran against Carper as a write-in candidate in 2006.

“I always run like I’m 20 points behind. Whether it’s Christine or anyone else, we’ll be ready for them,” he said.


Eric D. Schwerin
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