Retirement Day

The Times is now saying that Chris Dodd is going to drop out of his re-election bid; this comes on the heels of CO Governor Bill Ritter and ND Senator Byron Dorgan both announcing that they will not seek re-election.

Unlike the Dorgan announcement, however, the Ritter move is probably moderately good for the Democrats at the national level, and the Dodd decision is solidly good news.  I don't know what Ritter's chances for winning might have been, but his absence should allow Democrats to avoid a contested Senate primary there, which should help them hold the seat.  Seth Masket is tweeting that Andrew Romanoff has scheduled a news conference, presumably to jump from the Senate to the Governor race, leaving appointed Senator Michael Bennet (and, I should always note, Wesleyan grad -- woo hoo!) with an uncontested nomination (although it's certainly possible other pols could jump in to either race).  The news is even better for Dems in Connecticut; polling there showed Dodd as a likely loser in an otherwise solidly Democratic state. 

By far, the biggest of the three is the Dorgan decision, which is quite bad news for the Dems, but Democrats who hear the rest of it have no need to panic -- the other two retirements are basically good news for them.