CT Sen- Dodd will retire

Chris Dodd will retire according to Chris Cillizza;

Embattled Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd (D) has scheduled a press conference at his home in Connecticut Wednesday at which he is expected to announce he will not seek re-election, according to sources familiar with his plans.

[…]

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.

Blumenthal, who has served as state Attorney General since 1990, is the most popular politician in the state and has long coveted a Senate seat; he had already signaled that he would run for the Democratic nomination against Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) in 2012. (A sidenote: Assuming Blumenthal gets in to the race, Rep. Chris Murphy could be the long-term beneficiary as he is widely regarded as a rising star and would be at the top of the list of Democratic hopefuls to challenge Lieberman in 2012.)

PPP tweeted earlier that the seat would be safe if Blumenthal runs. No numbers yet, but we’ll see them soon.  

22 thoughts on “CT Sen- Dodd will retire”

  1. There is absolutely no reason we should be so worried about a state as blue as Connecticut.

    It’s a good contrast to Dorgan’s retirement.

  2. I like him, they he was going to lose.

    I assume that the Dems coordinated these retirement announcements.  

  3. Not trying to the whole John McCain shtick, but I’m really happy if this turns out to be true. It’s too bad, though, because Chris Dodd has been an excellent progressive senator. Unfortunately, the AIG thing blew up in his face, and he has to bow out as an extremely unpopular senator.

    I think we can now safely say we’ll hold on to Connecticut. I just hate the fact that the media will say that Dems are running for exits because of tidal wave election coming up. It won’t happen… and the media should know that this only helps us in 2010.

  4. On the one hand this is great news for the Democrats since Dodd has stepped on too many landmines to make a run for re-election advisable.  While he could perhaps have tried the Corzine approach of just throwing as much tar on his opponent as possible and hoping to become the lesser of two evils by proxy, that doesn’t always work.

    On the other hand Dodd has been a workhorse who has consistently stood on the right side on many issues and his departure will be a loss for the country and the United States Senate.

  5. I’m a longtime Connecticut Democrat and Dodd supporter.  I find this all very sad.  

    Obviously from a sheer national-politics perspective I’m happy and relieved that he took one for the team.  Blumenthal should have no trouble holding the seat (if he runs!) and Dodd really looked like he might lose.

    But Dodd has been a better Senator than a lot of people give him credit for.  He was the principal force behind the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which was the most significant progressive legislative accomplishment of the Clinton era.  He has always been excellent on budget politics as it affects families and children, and on all issues related to poverty.  At the same time he was always a moderate in regard to Wall St.  In that way I guess he represented Connecticut Democrats pretty well.  The Democratic coalition in our state includes both a bunch of rich Wall Street types AND several of America’s poorest cities.

    It’s unfair that the guy is getting the rap for the AIG bonus mess, which really wasn’t his doing at all.  But that’s politics.  And the choice to move to Iowa and run for President was an entirely self-inflicted wound.

    Anyway, just count me as not 100% happy about the end of the political career of the only real Democratic Senator our state has had for a long time.

  6. “Generic D” has a very good chance of winning this race now.

    If we get Blumenthal, I’d move it to Likely D immediately, until we see some poll results, which could kick it as far as Safe D.  (And if it’s “Generic D” versus Linda McMahon, that might be “Safe D” too.)

    If Blumenthal doesn’t run — and you never know, he actually might not have any desire to be a Senator — then we have to consider the other possibilties.

    (1) This could be a career-making kind of amazing opportunity for Chris Murphy.

    (2) Any chance of Rosa DeLauro giving up her House leadership post to jump into the breach?  She is just a fantastic legislator.

  7. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s

    I read the first paragraph and laughed. Yep, Dodd and Ritter retiring are TERRIBLE news for “Barack Obama’s party.” When Blumenthal and Hickenlooper win their respective races by double digits I’m sure Barack Obama will regret forcing his evil socialist Muslim Obamacare agenda on everyday Americans.  

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