ACTOR ALEC BALDWIN could be considering swapping the screen for a run at one of the most powerful positions in US politics.

The star of the hit television sitcom 30 Rock yesterday tweeted a somewhat cryptic message to his followers that he may be considering a run for New York mayor.

It follows the so-called “sext scandal” that has put paid to the aspirations of one time favourite, New York congressman Anthony Weiner, who is fending off calls for him to resign his seat after he posted lewd pictures of himself to other women using social networks.

Baldwin’s spokesman told the New York Daily News that The Hunt for Red October star was not ruling out a presidential bid following this tweet:

A friend of the actor told The Daily that the so-called ‘Weinergate’ has shook up the field of potential candidates to succeed current mayor Michael Bloomberg and added that the Democratic party may find their perfect high-profile candidate in the form of Baldwin.

A die-hard Democrat, Baldwin has long thought to have an interest in running for political office.

In January, Baldwin said in an interview with CNN’s Eliot Spitzer, himself once the  victim of a sex scandal, that he was “very, very interested” in running for office.

He said he had been approached in the past about running for positions outside of New York, but that as a New Yorker he would prefer to live in the Big Apple and hold a political position there.

But he added that leaving what he was doing now would be “extremely painful”.