Senator Evan Bayh is retiring…
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this year, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country.
“After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned,” Bayh will say, according to prepared remarks obtained by the Fix. He will make the decision formal at a press conference later today.
Bayh was first elected to the Senate in 1998 and was re-elected easily in 2004. National Republicans had recruited former Sen. Dan Coats to challenge Bayh in 2010 although polling suggested Bayh began the race with a 20-point edge. He also had $13 million in the bank at the end of the year.
Oh, and there’s this.
The Cook Political Report, one of the nation’s leading handicappers of congressional elections, now carries 10 Democratic-held seats in its most competitive categories — meaning that if Republicans sweep those race (and lose none of their own vulnerable seats), they will have a 51-seat majority. Cook, incidentally, moved Indiana from a lean Democratic seat to a lean Republican seat in the wake of the Bayh news.
2010 is going to be a good year indeed.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And better and better and better…
Signs of real vulnerability for California’s Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer
UPDATE II, by Mark Noonan:
Now Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) to bow out?
Blogs For Victory 