Senators Dodd, Dorgan Not Seeking Reelection

Democratic Senators Chris Dodd from Connecticut and Byron Dorgan from North Dakota have announced they will not be seeking reelection next year.

Senator Dodd, who ran for president in 2008 and has frequently been a great ally to progressives, is leaving after a financial controversy which left him vulnerable as a candidate; though it was determined by the Senate Ethics Committee that there wasn't any credible evidence Dodd had violated ethics rules, the appearance of impropriety was enough to put his reelection in question. Stepping down makes way for Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to take the Democratic nomination, and he is favored to win against a Republican challenger.

Senator Dorgan is more socially conservative, and has frequently not been a great ally to progressive women in particular. He was, however, as Think Progress recalls, totally right in 1999 during the repeal of the Glass-Steagall financial regulatory reforms in order to break down the barriers between investment and depository banking:
Upon passage of the bill in 1999, Dorgan predicted, "I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010."
Because of the demographics of North Dakota, we're unlikely to see someone with radically more progressive social politics elected to Dorgan's soon-to-be-vacated seat.

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