Last week I noted that the Democratic Chief Financial Officer of Florida, the widely popular Alex Sink, was considering a bid to challenge the vulnerable freshman Republican Senator Mel Martinez. Alas, Sink has opted against a run.

One of the Democrats' leading candidates to challenge Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) in 2010 has decided to pass up the opportunity, according to a source familiar with her decision.

Florida's chief financial officer, Alex Sink, has decided to run for a second term as CFO and forego a run against Martinez. She made the decision over the Thanksgiving weekend.

While Sink would have been a formidable challenger for Martinez, she is far from the only Democrat with a shot of knocking off Martinez this coming cycle. Indeed, although she has a proven statewide appeal from her 2006 CFO victory not enjoyed by some of the other Democrats potentially eyeing the race -- most notably Congressmen Bob Wexler, Ron Klein and Allen Boyd -- those federal elected officials have the added advantage over Sink of coming in with federal campaign accounts, each with at least $1 million as of mid-October, the funds from which could be earmarked for a Senate bid. What's more, all three Congressmen poll even with or above Martinez in hypothetical heat-to-heads. So even though Sink's decision today clearly is not a positive development for Senate Democrats hoping to extend their majority, it's not clear to me that it's a terrible development, either.