By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff

Florida Democratic Rep. Kendrick B. Meek has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning in his hometown of Miami, with sources close to the four-term congressman saying he will announce his candidacy for his state’s open-seat U.S. Senate race in 2010.

A candidacy announcement by Meek — one of three African-American lawmakers in Florida’s 25-member House delegation — would give him a jump on the other Democrats considering bids for the seat held by one-term Republican Sen. Mel Martinez , who announced Dec. 2 that he is not running for re-election.

Many Democrats are waiting for a decision about the Senate contest by Alex Sink, who as Florida’s chief financial officer holds a position similar to state treasurer. Democratic supporters tout her as a rising political star, and she is also reportedly mulling a possible 2010 bid for the governor’s seat held by Republican Charlie Crist .

Other possible candidates including Reps. Allen Boyd of the state’s northern Panhandle and Ron Klein of south Florida, as well as state Sen. Dan Gelber.

The 42-year-old Meek, known as a serious legislator with expertise on Haiti, would give up his increasing influence in the House to run for the Senate, including his seat on the Ways and Means Committee. He is the son of former Rep. Carrie P. Meek, who in 1992 joined Democrats Corrine Brown and Alcee L. Hastings — both still in Congress — as the first African Americans elected to Congress from Florida since Reconstruction. The elder Meek served for 10 years; her decision not to run again in 2002 paved the way for her son’s first election victory.

Meek’s statement about the Senate contest will come exactly a week after an announcement that could produce a free-for-all in the battle for the Republican nomination: the decision by former two-term Gov. Jeb Bush — brother of President Bush and son of former President George Bush — to decline a bid for the Republican Senate nomination, despite entreaties from many Republicans.

With Bush stepping aside, the list of potential Republican candidates is long. U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan and Connie Mack of Florida’s Gulf Coast region are reportedly mulling bids. Others considered possible candidates include state Attorney General Bill McCollum, who lost for the Senate in the 2000 general election against Democrat Bill Nelson and the 2004 GOP primary against Martinez; former state House Speaker Marco Rubio; state Senate President Jeff Atwater; and former state House Speaker Allan Bense, who gave some consideration to challenging Nelson when the Democratic incumbent ran for re-election in 2006.

Linda Vasquez Littlefield, an elder law attorney, announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination but begins the race with no statewide name recognition.

A competitive general election for the Senate seat is almost a certainty. After years in which the state trended strongly Republican, Democrats have made serious advances in recent election years. Barack Obama carried the state in his November victory for president; Nelson won a dominating victory over Republican Rep. Katherine Harris in 2006; and Democrats have made a net gain of three House seats over the past two election cycles.

Martinez in 2004 won the seat that will be in play in 2010 by a margin of just 1 percentage point over Democrat Betty Castor, the state’s former education commissioner.

Meek, should he decide to run for the Senate, will cause little angst for House Democratic campaign strategists. His district, the 17th, is a Democratic Party stronghold where blacks make up more than half the population and Hispanics make up more than a fifth. Voters there supported Obama by the biggest margin of any House district in the state — 87 percent of the vote to 12 percent for Republican nominee John McCain — according to a CQ analysis of results.

Greg Giroux contributed to this story.

First posted Jan. 12, 2009 6:51 p.m.

Correction
Corrects the third-to-last paragraph to say Democrats have made a net gain of three U.S. House seats in Florida over the last two election cycles.