Senators Dodd, Dorgan and Gov. Ritter – OUT
By LisaB on January 6, 2010 at 7:52 AM in Current Affairs
Chris Dodd will not run again. Byron Dorgan will not run again. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter will not run again. Politico has a story on the run for the exit.
Four top Democrats—including veteran Sens. Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan—all prepared to pull the plug on their campaigns in a 24-hour period that began Tuesday, and in the process, offered an unnerving glimpse at the perilous election year ahead.
With Dorgan’s stunning retirement announcement Tuesday evening, Democrats are now facing their bleakest election outlook in years—and the very real possibility the party will lose its 60-40 Senate supermajority after the November elections. On the House side, the prospect of heavy 20-30 seat losses is already looking increasingly likely.
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Dorgan’s announcement was accompanied Tuesday by Michigan Democratic Lt. Gov. John Cherry’s decision to end his floundering bid for governor, and by the revelation that both Dodd and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter would announce Wednesday that they would not seek reelection.
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[T]he retirements of two senior Democratic senators, and the suddenly altered landscapes in Michigan and Colorado, continue a wave of Democratic bail outs that began with a burst of retirements by veteran House Democrats representing competitive districts, followed by the stunning late December party switch by freshman Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith.
Dorgan says “I coulda won if I wanted. I just don’t wanna anymore.” Huh. True? Naturally, some people say it’s all about personal needs and NOT about politics. Seriously? I mean, why would anyone buy that?
The timing—the first week of the new year—and the locales of the retirements makes them hard to dismiss as isolated incidents, however.
In Colorado, the epicenter of the recent Democratic resurgence in the interior west, it is telling that Ritter, a 53-year-old former Denver prosecutor who cruised to victory in 2006, would unexpectedly pull down the curtain on a promising career and that Bennet, the senator he appointed to a vacant Senate seat, would be in jeopardy of losing it.
In Michigan, a state battered by job losses but still a reliable Democratic bulwark in state and federal races in recent years, the heir apparent to two-term Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm is similarly quitting before even starting, unable to raise money or get out from under the shadow of what has become a deeply unpopular administration.
And back in Washington, Democrats were all but blindsided by Dorgan’s decision to retire rather than seek a fourth term in a seat that only he may be able to hold. Neither the Senate majority leader nor the White House even had a statement prepared.
WaPo has a story on Dodd.
Once among the safest of incumbents, Dodd’s numbers plummeted in the spring of 2009 before rebounding somewhat over the summer. But, a Quinnipiac University poll conducted late last year showed significant slippage for Dodd and led to widespread speculation that he had to vacate the seat for his party to have a chance at retaining it in the upcoming midterm elections.
Dodd’s troubles were politically ironic, coming at a time when his power on Capitol Hill had reached a breath-taking level that most legislators dream of but never come close to achieving. In the last 18 months Dodd has been the primary author or co-author of legislation re-writing housing mortgage rules; the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street; key portions of the $787 billion stimulus package; a consumer protection bill overseeing the credit card industry; and the nearly $900 billion health-care legislation that has passed the Senate is in final negotiations with the House now.
Yep. That would do it.
While Dorgan insisted his decision had nothing to do with political calculations, his retirement is likely to have considerable impact on the national landscape — coming less than a month removed from similar retirement announcements by four Democrats sitting in conservative districts.
But Fivethirtyeight had this to say about the fallout
This is un-spinnably bad news for the Democrats. . . Perhaps this means that John Hoeven was going to challenge Dorgan for the Senate seat anyway and perhaps it doesn’t. But in either case, Hoeven’s entry into the Senate race would now seem likely and Democratic hopes are probably contingent upon Hoeven not running and Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota’s at-large representative, so doing, a rather dicey parlay in what will likely be a bad national environment for the Democrats.
The Denver Post has this about Ritter:
Polls have shown that Ritter is trailing Republican and former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis in the race. His departure would clear the way for popular Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter or others to enter the race for governor.
Interesting stuff. Early days and THESE guys are gone? What, specifically, is going on???
by Ronald Scott
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