Sen. Evan Bayh Announces He Will Not Seek Reelection

On February 15, 2010, Presidents Day, United States Sen. Evan Bayh announced that he would not seek a third term. He has served as a junior Democratic senator from Indiana since 1999.

Known as a moderate Democrat, Sen. Bayh's resignation sends mixed signals in regard to his future political career. Money was not an issue as he had $13 million in his political war chest on the day of his announcement. Also, Sen. Bayh stated that, despite being confident in his chances for re-election, he feels as though he can serve the public in another way.

Citing business aspirations as a potential future method of creating jobs, political pundits and bloggers have other suspicions. For example, perhaps Sen. Bayh is contemplating a run against incumbent President Obama in the 2012 democratic primaries.

Indiana has historically been a Republican state even though President Obama won the state in 2008. Sen. Bayh, being a moderate Democrat, had won five elections in the last 24 years in Indiana, the last two being for the U.S. Senate seat. His departure gives the Republican party a serious opportunity to pick up his seat.

Sen. Bayh's departure also sets up a curious procedural situation for the Democrats. To qualify for the statewide Senate election, a candidate must collect 450 signatures from all nine congressional districts in Indiana by 12:00pm on February 16, 2010, a little more than 24 hours after Sen. Bayh's announcement.

At this point, the only candidate who has claimed to be even close to collecting that number of signatures by the deadline was Tamrya D'lppolito, who alleged to be just 1,000 signatures short. If she is able to collect the remainder of the necessary votes she will be the only Democrat who qualifies. Ms. D'lppolio had entered the race touting a progressive agenda and was planning to criticize Sen. Bayh's moderate positions.

If Ms. D'lppolito is unable to gather the signatures, a committee of 32 Democrat officials will appoint a replacement who will most likely be able to bypass the primary saving some political capital for the battle for the senate seat. If she is able to gather the signatures, she may pose a problem for Democrats as she will be a liberal-leaning candidate in a typically conservative leaning state and will be uncontested in the primary.

As for the Republican side of the ticket come November, former Sen. Dan Coats announced last week that he would challenge Sen. Bayh. Now that Sen. Bayh has announced he will not run, other Republicans will surely re-consider entering the race.

Senator Bayh's Press Release: http://bayh.senate.gov/
John Bresnahan, Who gets Evan Bayh's money?, Politico, February 15, 2010