EAST HADDAM, Conn. — Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd says he won’t seek re-election to the U.S. Senate.
Calling it his moment to step aside, Dodd announced Wednesday at his home in East Haddam that he wouldn’t run for a sixth term. He cited, in part, the fact that he is in “the toughest political shape” of his career.
Dodd’s political stock fell after a controversy involving low-rate mortgages he received under a VIP program, the financial meltdown and his failed 2008 presidential bid.
The 65-year-old chairman of the Senate Banking Committee was trailing former Republican Congressman Rob Simmons in the polls.
Connecticut’s popular Democratic attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, is set to officially announce later Wednesday he will run for Dodd’s seat.
