New Mexico Democratic Rep. Martin Heinrich announced Sunday that he will consider running for the Senate seat now open in his state in 2012 after Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman announced Friday that he will not seek a sixth term.

In a statement, Heinrich said, "Many constituents and friends across New Mexico have asked if I will run for his seat. I have not yet made a decision, but together with my wife Julie, I plan to actively consider running. Jeff Bingaman and I share a passionate concern for this great state and its people, and my decision will be based on whether I believe I can best serve New Mexico in the House or in the Senate."

Heinrich won re-election in a marginal district in 2010, beating highly touted Republican challenger Jon Barela, 52 percent to 48 percent.

In the weeks leading up to the 2010 elections, Heinrich said he thought he was performing well in the polls and was poised to win his race because he did not back down from his record and instead tried to educate his constituents about why he cast the votes he did. Unlike the bulk of his congressional colleagues, he believed credit card reform was a winning issue and used it as a key part of his message in the midterms.

What's more, even before he was sworn into his first term in January of 2007, his top advisers decided to locate many key staffers in his district and place an emphasis on constituent services.

Heinrich maintained in several discussions with RealClearPolitics that he believed Bingaman was going to run for re-election, and he said each time that he hoped he would. He indicated he would know by March whether or not Bingaman was planning to step aside.

Democratic strategists seem most interested in a Heinrich candidacy, but other potential candidates include Democratic Rep. Ben Lujan; Diane Denish, the former lieutenant governor who lost a bid for governor last year; and state Auditor Hector Balderas.

Among the top candidates for Republicans are former Rep. Heather Wilson, who lost a primary for the state's open Senate race in 2008, and Rep. Steve Pearce, who lost the general election for the same Senate race that year.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano won't run for the Arizona Senate seat Republican Whip Jon Kyl is vacating in 2012, according to reports.

In Washington, Democratic Senate strategists are just fine with the development. They note that recent public polling as well as internal data show that she would not perform well in a general election there despite her popularity as governor of the state before she came to Washington.

On the GOP side, Rep. Jeff Flake has announced his candidacy, and a number of other Republicans are examining the race.

Democrats, who maintain that they have a chance to take the seat from Republicans, are in a holding pattern while Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords recovers from a gunshot wound to the head.

Giffords planned to run if Kyl retired, the Washington Post reported last week, and sources confirmed to RealClearPolitics. She may still run for the seat if she makes a full recovery.

There are several other Democrats looking at the race, including U.S. attorney Dennis Burke, former Rep. Anne Kirkpatrick, former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and former Mayor Paul Johnson.

New Mexico Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman will announce his retirement today, Democratic sources confirmed.

Bingaman, who is serving his fifth term, is among the most senior Democrats in the Senate. He also serves as chair of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Former Republican Rep. Heather Wilson has shown interest in running for the New Mexico Senate seat in 2012, and some reports suggest her candidacy would be contingent on Bingaman's decision.

Wilson lost a Republican Senate primary in 2008 to Congressman Steve Pearce. Pearce subsequently lost the race to now Democratic Sen. Tom Udall and has since returned to his old House seat after a Democrat held it for one term.

While Republican Susanna Martinez won the state's open governor's race handily in 2010, Democrats don't believe that this seat is too difficult to hold. They point out that President Obama carried New Mexico in 2008 by 15 percentage points, and that Democrats maintain a 17-point registration advantage over Republicans in the state.

Going forward, Democratic Rep. Martin Heinrich appears to be in solid shape should he choose to enter the Senate race. Recent polling shows him beating both Wilson and Pearce by double digits in hypothetical Senate matchups.

In several conversations with RealClearPolitics, Heinrich has expressed caution about the race and has said multiple times that he expected Bingaman would run for re-election. He said previously he expected to know Bingaman's decision by March and would think about the Senate race if Bingaman did retire.

Democratic Senate strategists note that the early retirement announcements from senators like Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and now Bingaman are all part of a larger strategy put in place by Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Patty Murray of Washington. The committee hopes to avoid late retirement announcements that would lead to shortened campaigns for new candidates. Instead, they hope to see candidates - including those such as Heinrich, potentially - hit the ground running early.

The departure of longtime Palin aides Jason Recher and Doug McMarlin is the latest indicator of the turmoil that has for years dogged former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's constantly evolving inner circle as she struggles to mount a stable political operation to set the groundwork for a potential presidential campaign.

On Wednesday, Palin aides moved to spin Recher and McMarlin's departure, first reported in New York Magazine earlier this week, as one that was always planned and amicable. But several sources with direct knowledge of the situation told RealClearPolitics that Recher and McMarlin's exits from Palin's sphere were anything but harmonious.

During the 2008 vice presidential campaign, Recher -- a 31-year-old veteran of the Bush White House -- became one of Palin's most-trusted advisers, as he helped her to navigate the intricacies of a national campaign and vigorously defended her against aides to John McCain who had turned on her amid a series of public stumbles and private infighting.

Recher remained close to Palin following the campaign and traveled to Alaska both before and after she announced her decision to resign from office in order to plan the rehabilitation of her image and help set the course for her political future.

Along with McMarlin, a seasoned GOP communications specialist, Recher formed a company called NorthStar Strategies shortly after Palin stepped down in 2009 and continued to be a central figure in Palin's inner circle.

NorthStar's name was a clear reference to Palin's frequent allusions to Alaska as the "great north star" and revealed the duo's long-term plans to remain aligned with the former governor.

Recher organized Palin's successful Going Rogue nationwide book tour and was often photographed by Palin's side as she signed copies of her bestselling book in venues across the country.

"You have to give Jason credit for a portion of her continued popularity with her supporters," Peter Watkins, who worked in the White House with Recher, said. "Just look at the operation that has been run. That book tour was quite sophisticated. It was on a national scale, and you had media attention at every stop."

Recher's other crowning achievement at SarahPAC came after he introduced Palin to the founders of PassCode Creative -- the Nashville-based video production company that produced SarahPAC's 2010 "Mama Grizzlies" campaign-style video. The video was almost universally praised for its high-quality production value and resonance with female voters.

According to PassCode Creative's co-founder Eric Welch, it was Recher's idea to direct the video's focus toward an appeal to women in advance of the 2010 midterm elections.

"Jason is very sharp, and he's very good at strategy," Welch said. "It's so great when you work with people who get it. Jason was the one who pushed the idea of using someone outside of D.C. for the video. We're totally outside of D.C, and she went rogue with us, and obviously, it worked."

But sometime around the middle of last year, Recher fell out of favor with Palin, although no one with knowledge of the incident in question would agree to go on the record to discuss it.

Over the next several months, Palin kept Recher and McMarlin on the payroll, but it became obvious to reporters that Recher was no longer in the loop in the way he used to be.

SarahPAC's effort to sell a "nothing to see here" story to the media in downplaying Recher and McMarlin's roles appeared not to sit well with former colleagues, who lined up to vouch for both men's talents.

Dana Perino, who was White House press secretary during part of Recher's stint in the Bush administration, said that anyone who thought that Recher's work was confined exclusively to setting up travel and events "didn't understand politics."

Perino said that Recher was particularly helpful in the White House whenever he used his "institutional memory" of Bush's two presidential campaigns in order to maximize political opportunities.

"He was so poised and organized, and I never, ever saw him crack under pressure," Perino said. "There's hardly anybody with the type of experience that he has and the temperament to do what he does and do it well. He can put up with a lot of crap."

Republican consultant Jim Merrill, who has known Recher since working with him on Bush's New Hampshire primary campaign in 1999, was also eager to sing the Granite State native's praises.

"He's truly one of the most outstanding, talented operatives I've known," Merrill said of Recher. "When you work at that level at the White House, rising up the ranks the way he did, there's just a great degree of sophistication and complexity involved in a job like that, and I think he proved himself time and again."

Ohio-based lobbyist Neil Clark has known McMarlin since they each worked for Republican candidates in the 1980s. Clark took particular umbrage at how, in his view, the Palin team slighted McMarlin.

"This guy is not just some token employee of an organization; he does lots of different things," Clark said. "Doug's got more relevancy than [Palin] does. More people are going to speak highly of him than her."

An aide who currently works for a potential 2012 presidential candidate told RealClearPolitics that Recher and McMarlin have been making inquiries to prominent Republicans who are exploring presidential runs.

Dana Perino said that any White House hopeful would be smart to employ the services of NorthStar Strategies.

"If I were a presidential candidate putting together an organization and needed somebody that understood national politics and had been through the wringer a couple of times, I'd be begging for someone like Recher and Doug to come and work for me because you're not going to find those people anywhere else," Perino said.

Earlier this month, Palin hired longtime GOP operative Michael Glassner to be SarahPAC's chief of staff. She addressed the move on Thursday during an appearance in front of a business group on Long Island, New York.

"I hired a chief of staff because, to tell you the truth, Todd's getting kind of tired of doing it all for me," Palin said, according to Politico.

Every member of Palin's inner circle, excluding her husband Todd, entered her political sphere after August of 2008. And throughout her relatively short career as a major public figure, Palin has gone through a long list of top aides.

Alaska Republican operative John Bitney helped run Palin's successful 2006 gubernatorial campaign and went on to become a close aide when she took office in Juneau. Palin later fired Bitney and dismissed him in Going Rogue as a "Blackberry games addict who couldn't seem to keep his lunch off his tie."

Longtime friend and adviser Kris Perry was Palin's only Alaska aide who traveled with her on the vice presidential campaign trail. Perry returned to the governor's office in 2009 before leaving Palin's political orbit.

Former reporter turned trusted Palin confidante Meg Stapleton resigned from SarahPAC in early 2010 to spend more time with her family, and attorney Tom Van Flein -- who doubled as a close adviser and conduit between Palin and outsiders -- left his Anchorage law office late last year to become the legislative director for freshman Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).

In his new role as SarahPAC's chief of staff, Glassner will face the task of cultivating a sense of cohesion among the Palin aides who are scattered around the country.

Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar has been preparing for an intra-party challenge since he was first elected, but recently, questions have popped up about his residency and commitment to Indiana.

Asked if Lugar lived in a hotel when he returned to Indiana, Lugar chief of staff Mark Helmke said, "That's correct."

Lugar owns a farm in the Hoosier State that he's been tending for decades. His siblings own parts of the farm, but he still works on it once a month with his son, even though he doesn't live there.

As for the living conditions on the farm, Helmke joked, "The place is pretty rustic."

Asked how Lugar's team would respond if challenged about his residency, Helmke shot back, "We'll be happy to talk about the farm."

"It's not an issue. They can try to make it an issue. We'll be happy to talk about the farm and what it means to him," Helmke said.

Lugar is awaiting a tough primary challenge from state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, but he has been dogged in defense of his record. In fact, he told the tea party to "get real" earlier this year.

While the tea party might be looking to take down Lugar, those close to Mourdock are more concerned with Lugar's more recent past as a Beltway insider, and Mourdock claims to be a little bit outside the tea party mantle.

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie rolled into Washington on Wednesday and delivered a blunt warning to members of his own party who were elected to Congress in November largely to reinstate fiscal discipline.

"It's put up or shut up time," Christie said during his address at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "If people who I campaigned for [in 2010] don't stand up and do the right thing, the next time they'll see me in their district is with my arm around their primary opponent."

Christie's speech focused on the balanced budget he ushered into his own state and his now famous battles against public unions. It also included a broad warning to the rest of the country that the time to act on major entitlement reform was now.

Lacing his address with snippets of his trademark humor as well as his brash style, Christie's address was extremely well received by the crowd packed into a smallish ballroom.

"My children's future and your children's future are more important than some political strategy," Christie said. "You're going to have to raise the retirement age for Social Security. Whoah, I just said it, and I'm still standing here. I did not vaporize!"

Appearing not to refer to any prepared notes and maintaining a conversational tone, Christie said that the country was on the verge of "missing an historic opportunity" to deal with the fiscal crises that are not "in and of themselves Democratic or Republican issues."

Christie, now entering the second year of his first term as New Jersey's chief executive, lavished praise upon the newly elected Democratic Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo and also singled out California's new Democratic Governor Jerry Brown for immediately setting to work on turning around their states' budget woes.

"Leadership today in America has to be about doing the big things and being courageous," Christie said.

Christie criticized President Obama for focusing on "the candy of American politics" in calling for new investments in electric cars, broadband internet access, and high-speed rail lines in his State of the Union address.

He regaled his audience with stories about being booed by firefighters after rolling back their pensions and telling New Jersey Democrats that he would order a pizza and watch the Mets play on TV rather than pull a political publicity stunt, if they chose to shut down the state's government.

"I think it's time for some impatience in America," Christie said. "Leadership, in my opinion, is not about waiting. I get four years as governor of New Jersey. I don't have time to wait."

After speaking for a little more than a half hour, Christie turned to questions from the press and members of the audience. Surprising no one in the room, the first inquiry came from a reporter who wanted to know whether the governor would reconsider his firm denials of interest in running for president in 2012, in the event that he deemed members of the GOP field unwilling to address the entitlement reforms that he said were necessary to avoid financial ruin.

"Well, that took a long time, didn't it," Christie said with a bemused look on his face. "I threatened to commit suicide, I did. I said, ‘What do I have to do short of suicide to convince people I'm not running?' Apparently I have to actually commit suicide to convince people I'm not running."

Christie added that he did see that there was an opportunity for him to mount a successful presidential campaign but that opportunity alone was not a good enough reason to run and that he simply was not up for it and had made a commitment to his constituents in New Jersey.

"My wife would kill me," he added for good measure.

Nonetheless, after he had concluded his remarks, the conversation among the conservative movers and shakers who had gathered to hear him speak immediately turned to 2012.

"I think he's running," one man in the audience said.

"He needs to run," another replied. "He's got my support."

In a separate conversation, a third member of the audience had this to add to one of his colleagues: "Obama ran because he saw the opportunity. Christie's never going to be hotter than he is right now."

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel of New York downplayed the importance of redistricting to his party's efforts to regain House seats next year, but he acknowledged that it will affect his team's strategy in the coming months.

"We will have some recruits announce at the end of March," he said at a press briefing Wednesday. Israel explained, however, that because the redistricting process is fluid, the recruiting process will be fluid.

He noted the redistricting process will have an effect on recruitment and the timing of it, because he doesn't want strong recruits to be announced before redistricting efforts have been completed for fear that it could negatively impact how districts are drawn.

"Republicans will redistrict you to another state," he joked.

Nevertheless, while Israel conceded that red states will pick up 12 congressional districts from blue states after redistricting is completed, he cautioned that not all of those seats will be red. As an example, he cited Texas, which will gain four seats before the 2012 election. Original projections suggested that all four would become GOP seats, but he pointed out that new analysis says both parties likely will add two Texas seats apiece.

Across the board, he said, the shuffle of seats between parties as a result of redistricting will be "pretty close to a wash."

Israel also boasted that the DCCC has already undertaken recruitment efforts in 30 states. Democratic congressmen on the recruitment team have visited 15 states on recruitment trips and made recruitment calls to candidates in another 15 states.

He called the level of involvement by members unprecedented, noting that Democratic House members from across the ideology spectrum have pitched in to help recruit. He added that the DCCC raised $4.4 million in January, its second highest January fundraising haul in the last five years.

"We have gone through the five stages of grief, and we're over it," he said.

Instead, he said, he's working toward winning 25 seats, which Democrats need to get in order to get to 218 seats and reclaim the majority. Specifically, Israel's examining the 61 seats Republicans hold that President Obama carried in the 2008 presidential election. Fourteen of those 61 were also carried by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 election.

"My focus is on 9 million independent voters," Israel said, noting that it won't be as difficult to make gains if the Democrats hold Republicans accountable. He complained that Republicans said if they got back to power they would work on jobs.

"They haven't focused on revitalizing jobs; they've focused on redefining rape," he said.

Israel was candid about Democratic opportunities in a couple of districts. First, he noted that for all of the hype about a competitive special election to replace New York Republican Rep. Chris Lee - who resigned last week after he lied about his age and occupation in a social posting online - the district isn't as competitive as some would suggest.

"I certainly haven't made that assessment," he said about whether it's a "Democratic district." In fact, he noted that Obama carried 47 percent of the district's vote in 2008, and Kerry carried 43 percent of the vote in 2004.

As for the South Dakota at-large seat, which Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin lost to Republican Kristi Noem in November, Israel said he's traded e-mails with Herseth Sandlin about a rematch. He said the DCCC wants her to run again but she hasn't said yet whether she's interested.

Not all former members who were ousted in 2010 are fielding recruitment calls from the DCCC, Israel said, but some of them are welcome back for rematches. He said polling shows that voters are having buyer's remorse in some districts where Republicans beat newer incumbents, and consequently some of them will be pushed to run again.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Paul Lindsay scoffed, "Steve Israel and his giant-sized ego will have a hard time winning anything until they admit why their party was rebuked by voters in the first place. Judging by their continued support for massive government spending, it's obvious that House Democrats have a long way to go before accomplishing their goal of returning Nancy Pelosi to the Speaker's chair."

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is set to take Washington by storm on Wednesday, as his captivatingly confrontational style and straight-talking charm will be on full display during a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Although Christie has issued more than a few dramatic denials of any interest in exploring a presidential run in 2012, "The Question" continues to follow the first-term governor wherever he goes, and his visit to the nation's capital will surely be no exception.

Washington political observers tend to assume that Christie's espoused lack of interest in mounting a White House run is merely the tactic of yet another savvy politician, but perhaps Christie really is what he says he is: a popular governor who is concerned about the nation's financial health but is perfectly content to remain in New Jersey for the time being.

"I believe him when he closed the door on running, but the problem is we have a tripwire media where everything is covered through the presidential prism, which is unfair," Republican strategist Mike Murphy said. "Why is he giving a national speech? He's got a unique style of dealing with the spending crisis in Trenton that he hopes will catch on with other governors, so I think he is trying to be an evangelist for his style, which has been effective at a time when it's needed. So maybe it's not about him."

In an uncommonly fluid field of GOP presidential contenders, Christie's emphatic rebuffs against the White House chatter have made him all the more attractive in the eyes of his legions of adoring fans nationwide, who greet him with rock star-worthy reverence whenever he speaks out of state.

Christie notched a strong fourth-place finish in last weekend's CPAC presidential straw poll, despite not even attending the conservative gathering in Washington, D.C. But back home, Christie is more than holding his own in a state where politicians are about as popular as the traffic on the Jersey Turnpike.

In a new Farleigh Dickinson University poll released on Wednesday, 51 percent of New Jersey voters approved of the way Christie was handling his job, while only 39 percent disapproved.

"People in the state are very clear that he is focused on the state, and I think that they're surprised by the national attention," Farleigh Dickinson political science professor Peter Woolley said. "I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that he's distracted by the national attention or that he is in any way shortchanging the conversation in New Jersey."

According to a Christie aide, the governor will meet with the New Jersey congressional delegation and attend a trade meeting at the White House, in addition to his AEI speech on Wednesday. The aide said that Christie's Washington trip was scheduled in order for him to share with a wider audience, including governors of other states from both parties, his experiences in dealing with New Jersey's fiscal crisis.

In a preview of his speech that was provided to Politico, Christie indicated that he planned to go into detail over his war with the teachers' union in New Jersey-a topic that always provides fertile ground for him to show off his take-no-prisoners persona.

Seton Hall University political science department chair Matthew Hale said that Republicans in New Jersey are sometimes as infatuated with Christie as many grassroots conservatives in other states often are but added that New Jersey residents who see him more frequently also get a glimpse at both sides of the coin.

"One of the raps that you'll hear against Governor Christie all the time is that he's a bully-that he rams things through and doesn't care or listen to what anyone else says," Hale said. "When that happens the first couple times around, it's kind of refreshing. It's a politician who doesn't care about politics. Over time though, that can wear kind of thin. So the guy who stands up for his convictions and does what he wants can also turn into the guy who beats everybody up."

Hale noted that there are many teachers and public sector employees who reside in New Jersey and tend to be particularly emphatic in their anti-Christie views. In general though, Hale said that Christie is perceived in the state as a leader who is focused on the tall tasks in front of him in Trenton, despite the obvious allure of a bigger stage.

"I think he's committed to New Jersey," Hale said. "He likes to view himself as this regular guy that wants to do the best that he can for his home state, and he's got a lot of Jersey pride. He's said that in his State of the State a couple of times-that he wants to bring that Jersey pride back. So I do think that part's real. I also think the limelight and the rock star quality-anybody's got to be affected by that."

President Obama defended his proposed $3.73 trillion 2012 budget on Tuesday against criticisms that it would not go far enough in addressing the nation's fiscal crisis in a manner that his own deficit commission suggested.

Facing questions from reporters who pressed him on why his budget cuts did not address entitlement spending, which is the long-term driver of the national deficit, Obama noted that he was on pace to meet his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term and said that he would work with members of both parties to address the larger fiscal problems going forward.

"To use an analogy that families are familiar with, we're not going to be running up the credit card anymore," Obama said.

Asked about proposed cuts to expenditures that are particular important to him, such as funding for community programs, Obama said, "There's some provisions in this budget that are hard for me to take."

But most of the questions from reporters were based on concerns that the budget cuts were too meager, rather than too draconian.

In acknowledging these criticisms, Obama also insisted that he was on pace to meet his promises to the nation.

"We've taken a scalpel to the discretionary budget rather than a machete," Obama said. "I've said in the State of the Union, and I'll repeat, that side of the ledger only accounts for 12 percent of our budget."

Obama said that he agreed with "much of the framework" that his fiscal commission put forward, though he disagreed with other parts of it.

The president argued that while Social Security was not the massive contributor to the deficit that it is often portrayed to be, Medicare and Medicaid were indeed "huge problems."

"I'm prepared to work with Democrats and Republicans to start dealing with that in a serious way," Obama said, arguing that the health care reform law had begun to tackle the issue of high medical costs.

Obama said that as Washington turned to address the most pressing fiscal issues, he wanted to see a repeat of the "genuine spirit of compromise" that existed in the lame-duck session of Congress last December when legislators cut a bipartisan deal on taxes and achieved successes on a range of other issues.

"In this town, you guys are pretty impatient," Obama said to the reporters sitting in front of him. "If something doesn't happen today, the assumption is that it's just not going to happen."

Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson should be relieved GOP former Gov. Jeb Bush has indicated he won't challenge him in next year's Senate race, because a new poll shows the Democrat would come up short.

A Mason-Dixon poll out this morning shows that in a matchup between Bush and Nelson, Nelson would lose by 8 points, 49 percent to 41 percent.

The poll of 625 registered voters was conducted on Feb. 9 and 10 and has a margin or error of 4 percentage points.

Late last year, Bush signaled to state Senate President Mike Haridopolos that he would not run, giving Haridopolos the green light to go forward with a campaign. He has since announced a bid and raised $1 million in a day earlier this month.

But Haridopolos has a long way to go to make things competitive against Nelson, who led him 48 percent to 25 percent in the survey.

Similarly, former House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, who is known to be another prolific fundraiser examining the race, also trails Nelson by more than 20 points, 46 percent to 24 percent.

The other two names tested who are seriously considering the race are Rep. Connie Mack and former Sen. George LeMieux. While they have higher name recognition in the state and performed better against Nelson in the poll, they aren't expected to perform as well in a GOP primary.

Mack scored 40 percent to Nelson's 45 percent, and LeMieux took 35 percent to Nelson's 49 percent.