Via the WaPo — Senator Byron Dorgan announced today that he would be retiring at the end of his term:
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.
Dorgan is the first Democratic senator to announce his retirement this cycle. Six Republican senators, in Florida, Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Kansas and Kentucky, are not running for re-election in 2010.
I’m not so sure that this is much of a surprise (Dorgan was a question in 2004) and certainly much of the media is having on about how bad this is for Democrats. At least some things do not change. Dorgan is one of he good guys (mostly) and certainly way more progressive than Conrad. Dorgan correctly called the catastrophe that would happen by repealing Glass-Seagall and was at the forefront of the effort to dismantle the regulations against re-importation of prescription drugs.
The real thing that isn’t much of a surprise is that Democrats will not have a 60 vote majority after the 2010 election. The repubs won’t get control of the chamber back, but some seats will be lost. There is some speculation of getting Earl Pomeroy to run, but frankly I think that this seat may be one to let go (provided Hoeven does indeed run) and concentrate on the many seats where it is possible to pick up to hold the line.