Speculation is growing over whether Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno is a serious candidate for Congress.
Gulf Coast News reported Thursday that Marceno’s campaign consultant confirmed the sheriff was considering a run for the seat currently held by Byron Donalds, who will be leaving to run for governor.
Anthony Pedicini is Marceno's campaign manager and he said Marceno's potential run is in the very early stages and when asked to do an on-camera interview about it he declined and said he would not be available until next week.
Former state lawmaker Spencer Roach, who serves as a political analyst, admitted that Marceno’s announcement caught him off guard.
“I think many political insiders were surprised,” Roach said.
Gulf Coast News reached out to other political consultants to get a temperature on what this could mean for the seat however none of them wanted to go on camera just yet.
They did say the timing of an announcement like this with an FBI investigation still looming raises questions.
“It could be he has a sincere interest in running for the congressional seat, and he's kind of poll testing the support for candidacy among donors and voters by floating his name out there,” Roach said.
Former Illinois State Senator Jim Oberweis confirmed he has filed to run. However, no one, including the sheriff, is listed as a declared candidate with the Florida Division of Elections as of Friday afternoon.
Gulf Coast News reported last September that Marceno was the focus of an FBI investigation.
He is accused of funneling taxpayer dollars through a contract employee to his father to pay for a luxury car.
He admitted in January that the FBI requested documents, which he says he provided.
In a previous statement, he denied any wrongdoing.
The question now is, could Marceno run for the congressional seat with a black cloud over his campaign?
“Not only is it possible, but in some cases, it can be a resume enhancement,” Roach said.