Every since Democrat Congressman Patrick Murphy announced that he would be looking to  replace Senator Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate, and not seek  re-election to his Republican-leaning congressional seat in 2016, both Democrat and Republican politicos and wannabee politicians in and around the Palm Beach County, Florida area, who are always aspiring to run for some elected office, have now honed in on possibly making a run for Murphy’s soon-to-be open congressional seat.

Like the Republicans, a slew of  potential known and unknown congressional contenders are having their names thrown around as being possible candidates for Murphy’s congressional seat.

While former Florida state Representative Carl Domino (R), who Murphy crushed by 20 points in the 2014 midterm elections, has decided to run for the seat again, and Martin County School Board member, Rebecca Negron, are the only announced congressional candidates in that GOP primary race, so far, only three Democrats have openly declared that they would run for this congressional seat.

Palm Beach County Commissioners Priscilla Taylor and Melissa McKinlay have already jumped into the Democrat primary race, as has Juan Xun, who ran in 2014 as an NPA, but was only able to muster 0.9 percent of the vote.

McKinlay’s recent announcement comes to a surprise, considering that she just won here Commission seat six months ago. The name Charlie Crist comes to mind.

By far the biggest potential Democrat congressional candidate, whose name is brought up every time there is mention of which potential Democrat candidate would stand the best chance of defeating a Republican in  that congressional district’s general election,  is state Senator Joe Abruzzo.

For those of you hoping that Abruzzo would jump into this congressional race in 2016, you better start looking for another candidate to back.

While sitting on  plane that was getting ready to leave Washington, D.C. for South Florida, Abruzzo told the Shark Tank in a phone interview that he was “100% percent” against running for Congress in CD 18, and was focused on “running for re-election” to the state Senate.

While Abruzzo’s somewhat liberal voting record in the Florida state legislature would have possibly presented some challenges for him in the general election, his ability to raise campaign cash and likeability within Democrat circles, could very well have won him the Democrat congressional primary race.

If Abruzzo ever decides to get out of politics, he  could have a future on the PGA circuit. Word is that Abruzzo plays a mean game of miniature golf.