Patty Murray to accept DSCC job..

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told her colleagues Tuesday afternoon that she’ll run the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2012 election cycle, a decision that puts a powerful insider in charge of retaining nearly two dozen incumbents in an uncertain political environment.

By selecting the fourth highest-ranking Senate Democrat to take the chairmanship, Democratic candidates will have a key advocate in the inner circles of the Senate leadership that formulates policy and strategic decisions that often play out along the campaign trail. She’ll be forced to lead the charge to defend the seats of 21 Democrats and two independents against just 10 Republicans who are facing voters in 2012.

Murray has been deliberating the position over the last several days, and she emerged as a leading contender after she’d been offered the position by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and had been urged by White House officials to take the job.

“I know that this is not an easy task, but I’m not doing it because it’s easy,” Murray told reporters. “I’m doing it because it is a very tough time for many families and businesses and communities across this country. And they are looking to us here to fight hard for them to help them get back on their feet.

Politico/Raju/ 11/30/2010

FL*Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor