Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will announce his decision on whether he will run for Governor in 2010 in the coming weeks, a campaign representative said Thursday.
Steve Chernof, Barrett's finance chair, said Barrett is ""weighing the decision.""
""I expect that we will have a decision within a couple of weeks,"" he said.
As of right now, Barrett is keeping his focus on city issues, but he is still ""taking the opportunity seriously,"" Chernof said.
Officially, Barrett is currently pursuing a general mayoral campaign. Chernof said they ""are certainly not geared up to run a mayoral campaign,"" and did not rule out the possibility of the current campaign turning into a gubernatorial campaign.
This statement comes on the heels of Gov. Jim Doyle's expression of ""second thoughts"" to Wispolitics.com about not running for re-election in 2010.
The Barrett campaign had no response to Doyle's comments. However, Chernof said that while he did not want to speculate on how that would affect Barrett's decision, Barrett's initial consideration rested on Doyle not seeking re-election.
""The opportunity was presented because the Governor announced that he was not going to run,"" Chernof said.
Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton is the only official Democratic candidate. Doyle has yet to make an endorsement.
Chernof said although Barrett is aware of the opportunity to run, he is taking this time ""to make the right decision.""
