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Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Democratic Retirements- Dodd, Ritter and Dorgan

Three prominent Democratic politicians are announcing or have already announced that they will not be running for reelection.

Senator Chriss Dodd is announcing that he will not be running for reelection and he does this as his poll numbers have already showed he was facing a very touch election race and was losing in the polls.

Dodd's retirement comes after months of speculation about his political future, and amid faltering polling numbers and a growing sense among the Democratic establishment that he could not win a sixth term. It also comes less than 24 hours after Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) announced he would not seek re-election.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is widely expected to step into the void filled by Dodd and, at least at first blush, should drastically increase Democrats' chances of holding the seat.


According to the Real Clear Politics averages, Dodd was trailing all Republican challengers so stepping down was not really a stretch.


Senator Bryan Dorgan is also dropping out and not running for reelection.

North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan will not run for re-election later this year, creating a major pickup opportunity for Republicans.

"After a lot of thought I have made the very difficult decision that I will not be seeking reelection in 2010, " Dorgan wrote in a memo to staff distributed this afternoon. "This decision is not a reflection of any dissatisfaction with my work in the Senate, nor is it connected to a potential election contest next fall (frankly, I believe if I were to run for another term I would be reelected)."

Dorgan was facing a potentially serious re-election race against Gov. John Hoeven (R) in November. He was first elected to the Senate in 1992 and, despite the clear GOP lean of the state, hadn't faced a serious re-election challenge since then.


While Dorgan claims he thinks he could have won a reelection bid, according to Zogby and Rasmussen, he was trailing in the double digits, by 22 percent via Rasmussen and by 19 percent via Zogby.

Last but not least, Governor Bill Ritter will not be seeking reelection in Colorado.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) will not seek a second term this fall, according to Democratic sources briefed on his decision.

Ritter was elected in a landslide in 2006, and his state's capital, Denver, hosted the Democratic National Convention and the presidential nomination of Sen. Barack Obama in 2008.

But Ritter's political fate has dipped considerably in the intervening years, and he faced an extremely difficult re-election race against former Rep. Scott McInnis (R) in November.

The Denver Post reported that Ritter has scheduled an 11 a.m. press conference Wednesday. Numerous sources close to the governor told the Denver paper that he will announce his decision then.


Now considering that Harry Reid, Senate Majority leader is also trailing behind each Republican rival, we can only hope he would be next to go, but that isn't truly a wish I believe would happen, he needs to be trounced for him to get it into his thick skull that his constituents truly dislike him and his unfavorable ratings are at 65+ percent with Nevadans...but hey, we can dream can't we?

Maybe a public trouncing is what the Democrats need to understand that Obama has wasted every bit of political goodwill they had accrued before the 2008 elections.

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