CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow made a splash in political and media circles with a Tuesday story in The New York Times in which he said he’s been coordinating with the National Republican Senatorial Committee about a possible run for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut.
Missing from the story is how much more he can explore before CNBC deems Kudlow a politician and cuts ties with him.
“Larry Kudlow is not a CNBC employee and no longer anchors a show and hasn’t since March 28, 2014,” a spokesperson for CNBC told the Washington Examiner media desk on Tuesday. “He is now a senior contributor.”
Kudlow is, however, under contract with CNBC. The spokesperson would not comment on the terms of that arrangement, Kudlow’s compensation, or when exactly CNBC would make a decision on its relationship with him as he considers a run for public office.
The New York Times report said Kudlow is interested in challenging incumbent Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who was elected in 2010 and is up for reelection in 2016.
“If I do this, I may get my brains blown out,” Kudlow told the Times. “But I want to talk to Democrats and say: Your party’s gone too far, particularly on national security, or the lack of it. And why should we hate business?”
In openly flirting with a run for public office, though, Kudlow is raising an issue for NBC that cable news outlets have run into before: When do news organization need to distance themselves from the political figures they have to cover?
Fox News ran into the problem twice over the past year. Mike Huckabee hosted a Sunday show on the network for years before, in January, Fox executives cut ties with him in light of his open consideration of a second run for president.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was also a Fox contributor until November, when Fox terminated his contract because he was set to run for president.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, a Fox contributor, also flirted with a White House bid but he announced in May that he would not be committing to a campaign.
A spokesperson for Kudlow did not return a request for comment.
