John Ensign Retiring: 3 Potential Candidates to Replace Him

Today Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., joined the growing list of federal legislators who won't seek re-election in 2012.

Ensign is being investigated over his affair with Cynthia Hampton, his former campaign treasurer and the wife of his former deputy chief of staff Doug Hampton. The Senate Ethics Committee has appointed a special investigator in the probe, which is expected to continue into 2012.

In a Las Vegas news conference this afternoon, Ensign said, "I just came to the conclusion that I couldn't put my family through" a re-election campaign.

So now, in addition to wondering what will become of Ensign's ethics investigation, we're wondering who will fill his seat.

No candidacies have been made official, but here are three potential contenders to watch in the Nevada Senate primaries.

1. Rep. Dean Heller
Already mentioned as a leading GOP choice for Ensign's Senate seat, Heller has represented Nevada's 2nd District in Congress since 2007 and sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Before going to Washington, Heller served three terms as Nevada's secretary of state and spent two terms in the state assembly. He maintains a polite-yet-cautious relationship with Nevada's vocal tea party movement, and a poll released last month showed Heller with a 15-point advantage over Ensign in a hypothetical 2012 primary matchup.

2. Rep. Shelley Berkley
Berkley, a Democrat from Nevada's 1st District, was elected to Congress in 1998. She, too, serves on the Ways and Means Committee, and she previously was a state assembly member and an appointee to the Nevada University and Community College System Board of Regents. In 2009, at the height of Ensign's affair scandal, Berkley told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that even though she enjoyed her House seat, she saw the situation as a possible opening in the Senate. "The circumstances have changed, and I would take a good look at" running, she said.

3. Secretary of State Ross Miller
When Democrat Ross Miller was elected in 2006, Nevada earned a new claim to fame: Miller became the country's youngest secretary of state, at age 30. In 2010, he trounced Republican Rob Lauer, 53 percent to 37 percent, to retain his seat. Miller has not said whether he is interested in Ensign's seat, but his background in business and criminal justice has made him popular in the Silver State.

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