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Friday, February 18, 2011

Bingaman retires

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico is announcing today that he will not run for his seat again in 2012. He is the fourth senate Democrat to retire rather than face the voters in 2012. Two Republican senators have also announced their departures.

This retirement is not good news for the Democrats in their efforts to keep control of the senate in the next election. Although president Obama won New Mexico in 2008, the race could be very close there in 2012. In fact, this state has to now be rated as a toss up rather than a likely Democrat victory as a result of the retirement. since the Democrats are defending 23 seats to the Republicans' 10 in the next cycle, adding another seat to the toss up category makes it that much harder for the Democrats to hang on to control.

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