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Nevada: Harry Reid to Retire … in 2016?

A Washington Post columnist wrote that Sen. Harry Reid (left) won't run for another term in 2016. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
A Washington Post columnist wrote that Sen. Harry Reid (left) won't run for another term in 2016. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Updated: 4:42 pm | Did Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank accidentally announce Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s retirement in an appositive clause buried nine paragraphs down in his column today?

Maybe he was writing what everyone else has been thinking, but in a piece about Reid’s ongoing spat with Mitt Romney over taxes, Milbank wrote in authoritative terms that the Nevada Democrat would not seek re-election in 2016.

“Reid, who won reelection in 2010 and doesn’t plan to run for office again, is happy to absorb blows in return — and they have been ferocious,” Milbank wrote.

Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said that despite the column, Reid has “no plans to retire.”

Multiple sources close to the Majority Leader, however, concede that though Reid has not said so officially, it seems that his time in the Senate is winding down. Reid is 72, the Democrats could lose the Senate either this cycle or maybe next and the Majority Leader has family considerations, as well.

But for now, it appears Reid is quite content where he is — attacking the presumptive GOP presidential nominee from the Senate floor.

UPDATE 4:42 pm

Jentleson added later in the day that Reid is certainly running for re-election. “He has every intention of running in 2016, and is actively taking the steps necessary to do so,” he said.

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