"After prayerful consideration and much thought, my wife Janet and I have decided that I will not seek a third term in the United States Senate," he writes on his Senate website. "Not since the Great Depression and the Second World War have we been confronted with such challenges, as a nation and as a world. Those of us that have been given the honor to serve in these times must step up to the plate and put this country on a course that will see it through these harrowing times and make it strong and viable for the 21st century. These next two years in office, for me, will be the most important years that I have served in my entire political career. I must devote my full time, energy and focus to the job I was elected to do, the job in front of me, which seeking a third term - with the money-raising and campaigning that it would require - would not allow me to do."
Voinovich's retirement clears the way for him to vote his conscience over the next two years without much regard for the exigencies of party discipline. Democrats believe that he might be willing to part company with GOP orthodoxy on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), although the ideological tincture of "Voinovich Unfettered" is unknown.
I expect that Ex-Reps. Rob Portman and John Kasich will run for the Senate, although both of them are also interested in challenging Gov. Ted Strickland (D), so one might clear the way for the other.
A bunch of Democrats are going to take a look at the seat, including Reps. Zach Space, Betty Sutton and Tim Ryan. Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, a former Ohio Attorney General, will probably run.
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