What Carl Levin's Retirement Means for Michigan and for Democrats
The longtime senator's decision opens the field up for potential successors -- and could offer Republicans a chance to pick up a seat.
MAR 8 2013, 11:56 AM ET
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., announced late on Thursday that he will not seek a seventh term in 2014, leaving Democrats with another open seat to defend next year. Levin called the decision "extremely difficult" and said he wanted to focus on his role as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee "without the distraction of campaigning for re-election."
Levin is the fourth Democratic senator to announce he won't run for reelection -- Sens. Tom Harkin, Frank Lautenberg and Jay Rockefeller have all announced this will be their last term, and Tim Johnson is considered likely to join them. With the exception of Lautenberg, their departures create a problem for Democrats as they try to retain their majority. Had Levin chosen to run, he would have been a heavy favorite, but now Republicans may smell a pickup opportunity.
Michigan Democrats have been readying for a challenge to Gov. Rick Snyder, but they'll now face the added challenge of retaining the Senate seat for the party. They've had success in that area, holding both of the state's seats in the upper chamber for more than a decade. "We win on the federal level," said newly-installed Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Lon Johnson in a phone interview Wednesday, before Levin's announcement. "Our challenge," said Johnson, "is to convert those victories to the state level."
The challenge now will be mounting two heavily contested statewide campaigns -- and the possibility that one race could thin the candidate pool of the other. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, expressed confidence the seat would stay in Democratic hands. (Bennet is the brother of Atlantic Editor-in-Chief James Bennet.) "I am confident that we will recruit a great Democratic leader who will continue to fight for the values and priorities Senator Levin advocated for all these years," Bennet said in a statement. "We fully expect to keep Michigan blue in November 2014."
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/what-carl-levins-retirement-means-for-michigan-and-for-democrats/273845/
