The Early Word: Senate Shake-Up - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

The Early Word: Senate Shake-Up - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com: "2010 Election Dispatches The departures of two Democratic Senators, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, puts the party’s precarious hold on the Senate more plainly than ever at risk.

Mr. Dodd, the embattled Connecticut Democrat who was facing an increasingly tough bid for a sixth term in the United States Senate, has decided not to seek re-election this year, and is to announce his decision at a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Connecticut. His move opened the way for the state’s highly popular attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, to announce that he would run. Democrats and Republicans said he would be a much stronger candidate in what is a Democratic state.

The decision came hours after another Democratic senator, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, also announced that he would not seek re-election this November. The developments underscored the fragility of the Democrats’ 60-vote Senate majority, which is just enough to block Republican filibusters. Democratic incumbents also face serious challenges in Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada and Pennsylvania among other states, reported chief political correspondent Adam Nagourney of The Times.

Mr. Dodd was already considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats facing re-election this November, and party officials had been privately hoping he would step aside."