TWO DEMOCRATIC senators and a Democratic governor have decided not to seek re-election in November’s mid-term elections.
Announcements by Sen Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota – both veterans of 30 years in the Senate – and Bill Ritter, the first-term governor of Colorado, were seen as an omen of the difficulties faced by the Democratic party this year.
Mr Dodd, who owns a house in Galway, is one of the most prominent Irish-American politicians.
“Senators Dodd and [Teddy] Kennedy were critical in influencing [the former President Bill] Clinton to get involved in the Northern Ireland peace process,” said Stella O’Leary, the president of Irish-American Democrats, a political action committee. “They did a great service in raising the profile of Irish issues in Congress.”
Mr Dodd and Kennedy were the closest of friends, and Mr Dodd cited Kennedy’s death last August, his sister’s death in July, also from cancer, and his own prostate cancer, as factors that led him to ask, “Why am I running?”
Mr Dodd’s departure “is certainly a big loss for our community” said Ciaran Staunton, the President of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. “He had an open office for the Irish community and for the Irish Government. We sat in his office last year and discussed the issue of undocumented Irish. If liberal Chris Dodd can’t get re-elected in Connecticut, it’s a wake-up call for the administration.”
Opinion polls showed that Mr Dodd (66) was likely to lose his seat. He had alienated Connecticut voters by moving with his wife and daughters to Iowa in the hope of winning the Democratic presidential nomination. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he was also viewed as being too close to the big banks.
Sen Dodd broke the news outside his home in Connecticut, flanked by his wife and four year-old daughter. “There are moments for each elected public official to step aside and let someone else step up. This is my moment to step aside,” he said.
Barack Obama hailed Mr Dodd’s “remarkable record of achievement” and said “his leadership in [the Senate] will be missed.” Ms O’Leary and Mr Staunton said reports that the former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford may challenge New York senator Kirsten Gillebrand, née Noonan, concerned Irish-Americans. Ms Gillebrand was appointed to Hillary Clinton’s seat when she became secretary of state. There is a sense of déjà vu about a young, charismatic Black politician challenging an older white woman who has the support of the Democratic party.
Ironically, Mr Dodd’s departure may save his seat for the Democrats. The Connecticut state attorney general Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, is well-placed to succeed him. But Sen Dorgan’s seat could fall to North Dakota’s popular Republican governor, John Hoeven, threatening the Democrats’ nominal, filibuster-proof majority of 60 of 100 seats.
When he was elected in 2006, Governor Ritter of Colorado was considered a rising star in the Democratic party, but polls show he would be defeated.