Senate Banking Chair Dodd to Retire Posted by AVCU on 2:11 PM

In an email message today Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) announced that he will not seek reelection in November. Dodd’s announcement comes one day after Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said he will retire at the end of 2010. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed him trailing former Connecticut Republican Congressman Rob Simmons by 11 percentage points in a hypothetical contest for the 2010 Senate race. In his email message, Dodd said polls had no bearing on his decision. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, told the Associated Press today that he will run for Dodd’s seat. Dodd, a five-term incumbent, was a candidate the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He served in the Peace Corps in the 1960s. His father, the late Thomas Dodd, was also a Connecticut senator. Dodd has often been cited as a credit union supporter.

The Senate Banking Committee is vital to credit unions in Congress. Potential replacements for Dodd as chairman include Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Although a committee member, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez (D) probably lacks the seniority to capture the chairmanship in the absence of broader Senate leadership and committee changes.