Former St. Louis-area Congressman Jim Talent is poised to announce he’s setting up an exploratory committee to look into a run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Senator Jean Carnahan. Talent served eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives, before running unsuccessfully for the Governor’s Office last fall. He lost by 21,000 votes. High level Missouri Republicans say the announcement of the exploratory committee will come Thursday morning, and they believe Talent will decide, within a few weeks, to challenge for the seat in November of next year.