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By Kristina Scala

kscala@delcotimes.com @Scala_Kris on Twitter

Democrat Joe Sestak is looking for a rematch against Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey in 2016.

Sestak, the former Navy admiral and onetime Congressman from Edgmont, plans to kick off his campaign Wednesday on the front steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

"I won't go into details right now, but let me just say this: I'm going to make it interesting," he wrote in an email announcement Monday.

Regardless of Sestak's marginal loss to Toomey five years ago, and his lengthy campaign, the odds of the Democrat winning the race are murky. Another Sestak campaign isn't attracting support from state party leaders, potentially pointing to another failed attempt for the Senate for the Democratic challenger.

"He has never stopped running since he lost to Toomey six years ago," said Terry Madonna, political pollster from Franklin and Marshall College. "The difference now is he's not exactly a lot of party leaders' first choice, to put it mildly."

There was a similar lack of party support when Sestak's Democratic primary opponent, Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter, won the Democratic endorsement to run against Toomey in 2010. Specter lost to Sestak in the primary election with 46 percent of the vote.

If the Democrats don't see Sestak as a fit opponent to beat Toomey, why not pull together better-suited candidates?

Madonna said it has to do with the party finding a candidate who's capable of raising tens of millions of dollars to run a Senate campaign. "It's not something you have to choose now, but you can't wait indefinitely because of funding."

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Democrat Joe Sestak to kick off 2016 campaign for U.S. Senate this week

By Emma Dumain Posted at 8:39 a.m. on March 3

Kind said the centrist group wants a bigger role in helping to shape Democrats message.(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Members of the New Democrat Coalition have struggled for years to make their centrist messageheard in the larger,and distinctly more left-leaning, House Democratic Caucus.

The 46 self-described moderate and pro-growth House members in the coalition saythey agreewith the rest of their caucuson 90 percent of the issues its the remaining 10 percent thats harderto summarize.

How difficult? Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., shares a joke he tells about the group to illustrate the point.

The New Dems message doesnt fit on a bumper sticker, he told CQ Roll Call. So I said we should stand on the steps of the Capitol and shout, What do we want? A comprehensive approach to job creation that includes tax reform, investments in infrastructure and a pro-growth budget that invests in our future! When do we want it? Well, we want to work in a collaborative way to bring people together!

I should probably have thrown education in there, too, Kilmer added. That would be a part of the chant, too.

The New Democrat Coalition members have long bemoaned their exclusion from the leadership table thats typically especially now skewedto the left.

But with Democrats of all stripesevaluating what went wrong in the 2014 midterms and wondering how to win back seats in 2016, members of the group see an opening to really be heard and hopefully taken seriously.

Thats why, for the first timein its nearly 18-year history, the groupis putting out a comprehensive legislative agenda.

Excerpt from:
Centrist New Democrats Want Bigger Role in Party's Message

Senator: Thats a major problem

March 3, 2015 | 2:30 pm

IOWA CITY If Iowa senators confirm the three new Board of Regents members recommended this week by Gov. Terry Branstad, the board will include only one registered Democrat.

The boards nine volunteer members currently include five Republicans, two Democrats and two members who are not registered with a party. The six-year terms for regents Bob Downer, a Republican from Iowa City, Ruth Harkin, a Democrat from Cumming, and Hannah Walsh, a Republican filling the student seat on the board, are set to expire at the end of April.

On Monday, Branstad announced dozens of appointments to fill Iowas boards and commissions, including three new regents. Mary Andringa of Mitchellville and Patricia Cownie of Des Moines are both registered Republicans. Rachael Johnson, a student representative from the University of Northern Iowa, is not registered with a party, according to Jimmy Centers, a spokesman with the governors office.

If confirmed by two-thirds of Iowas senators or 34 votes the board effective May 1 would include five Republicans, three without party, and one Democrat current regent President Pro Tem Katie Mulholland. The board cannot have more than five members of the same political party, according to Iowa Code.

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, said although Branstads appointments dont violate the letter of the law, this clearly is a violation of the intent.

Thats a major problem theyll have to look at, he said.

State law also requires the board be gender-balanced. With the new appointments, the board would include five women and four men.

The Senate must decide whether to confirm the appointments by mid-April, Dvorsky said. If they reject any of the names, the governor could suggest different appointments or name interim regents, who would have to come back for confirmation next year, Dvorksy said.

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Iowa Regent appointments would leave one Democrat

Highlights from Nick Clegg #39;s visit to Botley School
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg and Layla Moran, Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford West and Abindgon visit Botley School in a trip that included meeting with school leaders and joining...

By: Liberal Democrats

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Highlights from Nick Clegg's visit to Botley School - Video

TIME History politics Heres What Barbara Mikulski Told People Who Said She Didnt Look Like a Senator Terry AsheThe LIFE Images Collection/Getty Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski speaking during a Senate Labor Committee hearing in 1987 In her winning 1986 campaign, the Maryland Democrat spoke out against 'code words' that held people back

When Barbara Mikulski the 78-year-old Maryland Democrat and longest serving woman in Congress, who announced Monday that she will retire in 2016 ran for Senate in 1986, some people told her she didnt look like a Senator.

Though she had already spent a decade in Congress, and though she had gotten her start as a community organizer and councilwoman in Baltimore, and though her run for Senate was one of three national contests that year in which both major candidates were women, gender and appearance still played into coverage of the race.

But, as Mikulski made clear, conversation about whether she or any of the other female candidates looked like voters ideas of what a politician should be was just a way to keep that image from changing. As TIME wrote then:

In Maryland, Mikulski and [Republican nominee Linda Chavez] are waging tough, no-holds-barred campaigns. Although both women come from ethnic, working-class backgrounds, we are as different as two people can be, says Chavez, 39, a cool Hispanic American who is married and makes much of being the mother of three sons. Mikulski, 50, is single, a self-styled scrapper with the sturdy perseverance of a tugboat. She sharply turns aside comments that she does not look senatorial. Says the candidate: A lot of Americans, black or white or female, are always told that they dont look the part. Its one of the oldest code words.

Mikulski won and became the first female Democrat to hold a seat in the Senate not previously held by her husband. As TIME put it back then, she had abandoned petticoat politics an appropriate tactic for the woman who brought the pantsuit to the Senate.

Read the full 1986 story, here in the TIME Vault: No More Petticoat Politics

Read next: How Barb Mikulski Paved the Way for Hillary Clintons Pantsuits

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Heres What Barbara Mikulski Told People Who Said She Didnt Look Like a Senator