Hillary targeting early April for campaign launch?

The speculation has gone on for months but it appears Hillary’s 2016 timeline is coming into focus. Now that we’re a few weeks into 2015, she’ll likely want to avoid being forced to file campaign financial reports for this quarter since it would appear she was off to a slow start. Therefore, early April seems like the logical choice.

Report from MSNBC:

John Podesta, who is expected to serve as Clinton’s campaign chairman or in another senior role, said Wednesday that he plans to leave the Obama White House next month, ahead of a Clinton announcement expected in the late Spring.

“I’m probably going to leave in early February,” Podesta told Reuters. “If she decides to run, I told her I’d do anything I can to help her.”

While some in Clinton’s orbit pushed for her to get into the race early, she has opted for a slower time frame, scheduling non-political paid speeches as late as March 19.

Democratic insiders increasingly point to early April as the most likely launch window, which would allow her to avoid filing a campaign finance report to the Federal Election Commission for the first quarter of the year. Easter falls on April 5 this year, so the week after appears likely.

Nothing is confirmed, Clinton insiders stress, and she could still decide not to run, though that appears increasingly unlikely.

She doesn’t have a reason to announce earlier unless someone else jumps in and begins stealing her thunder. Jim Webb is already running, but he has not and will not attract the attention that, say, Elizabeth Warren would if she dropped a campaign announcement next week. Barring unforeseen circumstances, this will be a Republican show until Hillary jumps in on her timeline or someone else forces her to.