Mayor Baldwin? 'I Wouldn't Rule it Out,' Says Alec's Rep

With Anthony Weiner out of the way, actor Alec Baldwin may finally have found the political office he's always wanted. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seeing his long three-term stint coming to an end, a job Weiner was looking to fill until his downfall this week made that impossible.

"Alec said, 'Hey, maybe this changes the race. The dynamics have shifted,'" a friend of Baldwin's told The Daily. "The Democrats need a high-profile candidate, and Alec can fill that bill."

"I wouldn't rule it out," Baldwin's representative, Matthew Hiltzik told The Hollywood Reporter.

Actors-turned-politicians is hardly a new concept, the two most famous examples being Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jesse Ventura was famously the Governor of Minnesota, Al Franken has made some noise as one of that state's senators, but even Sonny Bono and Clint Eastwood have had political jobs, as a Representative and Mayor, respectively.

In January, Baldwin, a die-hard Democrat, told CNN's Eliot Spitzer that he was "very interested" in public office, but expressed his strong preference for staying in New York City. Baldwin was born in Massapequa, a suburb of Long Island, and has long had ties to the city. That interview came just months before Baldwin announced that the next season of "30 Rock" would probably be his last.

Talk of political office has chased Baldwin ever since he expressed interest in 1997, telling New York Magazine, "Is this something that I want to do? Yes...The men and women that run the world are in their 50s. It takes time to build that kind of thing. I'm 39."

Could now be that time? I don't know any "30 Rock" viewer who doesn't automatically see Baldwin as some sort of authority figure, but there is a lot more that goes into a political race than just perception. Right?