The Eye

Scanning over a list of senators who recently left Congress, I was reminded of some of the other retirement announcements that were out of the ordinary.

In February 2005, one-term Minnesota Democrat Mark Dayton acknowledged that his poor approval ratings would jeopardize his party's ability to win the seat in the November 2006 elections.

"I do not believe that I am the best candidate to lead the party to victory next year," Dayton told reporters in a conference call.

Dayton faced a serious challenge from Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy, who wound up getting trounced in the November 2006 election by Democrat Amy Klobuchar. If Dayton had lost to Kennedy, the Senate would have been 50-50 after the 2006 elections instead of of 51-49 Democratic.

And who can forget the September 2002 announcement by New Jersey Democrat Robert G. Torricelli, who relinquished his re-election campaign weeks before the November election on the grounds that his poor approval ratings might cost Democrats control of the Senate?

Torricelli's decision came well after the candidate filing deadline, but the courts upheld the Democratic Party's plan to allow Democratic former Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg to run in Torricelli's place. Lautenberg won the election but Democrats still lost control of the Senate.