Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, plans to resign his seat before the end of the year, congressional and Bush administration officials said Monday.
Lott, 66, scheduled two news conferences in Pascagoula and Jackson later in the day to reveal his plans. According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement, Lott intends to resign effective at the end of the year.
No reason for Lott’s resignation was given, but according to a congressional official, there is nothing amiss with Lott’s health. The senator has “other opportunities” he plans to pursue, the official said, without elaborating. Lott was re-elected to a fourth Senate term in 2006.
The conventional wisdom says that Gov. Haley Barbour will appoint retiring Rep. Chip Pickering (R) to replace Lott. It would be unsurprising if Pickering would then reverse his retirement decision and run for a full Senate term in 2008, if perhaps slightly awkward.
For the Democrats, will this finally be the chance for former state AG Mike Moore? Stay tuned.
Update (Trent): Former Democratic Governor Ronnie Musgrove is “seriously considering” the race, while Republicans say it’s unlikely Barbour would choose Pickering.
Me thinks that Trent is heading back home after learning that our senior senator, Thad Cochran, announced that he will run for reelection. Lott has always wanted to be the senior senator from Mississippi, but Thad was always in his way.
Now the question is who Governor Barbour will appoint. Rep. Pickering? Rep. Wicker? Lt. Gov. Tuck? Haley is no fool; he’s going to pick the person most likely to hold the seat to a heated election with either former AG Moore or former Gov. Musgrove.
Pickering stated once that his position in the minority party in Congress helped push him into retirement. It wouldn’t make much sense for him to be on the other side of the rotunda where he’ll be in the minority party as well.
If passed over a second time, do you think he’ll become distraught enough to retire? It seems silly, but I imagine that Vanderbilt presidency, or whatever it was would look pretty nice, and after 2008, especially if McConnell loses, or steps down, the GOP will probably look north, or west for leadership, not south. by then they’ll have realized what most dems did years ago, being propped up by the south only makes you beholden to crazy special interests the rest of the country finds horrid, (in basic chronologic order slavery, the kkk, Jim crow, opposition to bi-racial marriage) or ridiculous (anti-stem cell, Terri Schiavo, the whole confederate flag thing).
My sources tell me that former governor Musgrove is being named as the Democratic frontrunner. yay!
So if Lott’s resignation is effective on 12/31, then I think that they have to call a special election by March.
If Lott’s resignation is effective on 1/1, then the election will be held in November.
And i’m pretty sure that the special election is supposed to be “initial election -> runoff”
or at least it will be that way if they hold an election in March.
I do hope one of our big guys gets in and the DSCC gets behind him big. It would be so rich to go into Nov 08 with a Senate victory in the deep south.
Can the Republicans really afford another open Senate Seat?
GOV. HALEY BARBOUR
“Senator Lott’s decision to resign will result in a terrible loss for Mississippi and for the country.
Pursuant to Mississippi law, specifically § 23-15-855 (1), of the Mississippi Code, once the resignation takes effect, I will call a Special Election for United States Senator to be held on November 4, 2008, being the regular general election day for the 2008 congressional elections.
Further, within ten days of Senator Lott’s resignation’s taking effect, I will appoint a Senator to serve until the winner of the Special Election for United States Senator is elected and commissioned, as provided in § 23-15-855 (2) of the Mississippi Code. My goal is to appoint the best qualified person who can do the most for our state and country.
I will not be a candidate for Senator in the Special Election, and obviously, I won’t appoint myself to fill the vacancy on an interim basis.”
Honestly, can this year be any better for the Dems in the Senate? Even if it were to be Pickering, that shouldn’t scare off any of our big name guys and even if we lose, imagine the amount of money the NRSC will have to spend here instead of MN, OR, or ME.
That 60 filibuster proof margin is seriously within our grasps, it can be done, we just need to bust our asses working for these Senate candidates.
First, it is nice to see an active and strong bench in such a red state like Mississippi.
Second, I can’t wait to see this race develop. It’s exciting, and it is going to be a nice couple weeks. Carson finally retired in Indiana, and it’s only going to get better for us.
Rundown
0 of 12 Democrats in the Senate are retiring
6 of 23 Republicans are retiring from the senate
5 of 233 Democrats are retiring from the House. (Three are running for senate)
17 of 202 Republicans are retiring from the House. (Two are running for one senate seat)
The dice are rolling our way.
What others have said makes sense – Lott knows he probably won’t be in the majority again, Cochran will always be in the way of his being Senior Senator, and he can’t go work for K Street after December 31st thanks to the new lobbying laws.
I’m no fan of Musgrove, who’s about as progressive as Ben Nelson, but he’s still a marked improvement over good ol’ Trent, and it’s not as though we’re going to get a true progressive out of Mississippi, anyway. Still, I’m concerned that the ideological fractures among Senate Democrats aren’t going to be helped by winning a few more Republican seats. If we have Musgrove, Warner, and Shaheen on one side and Udall, Udall and, say, Steve Novick or Al Franken on the other, they’ll essentially cancel each other out. More Democrats overall, and it doesn’t matter as much who caucuses where with a Democratic White House, but it’s still going to be messy, esp. if Reid remains in charge.
So if McConnell goes down (which he probably will), Lott’s now retiring, and Lamar! buggers off to Vanderbilt out of spite for them both, who’s the new minority leader? (Can I venture a guess that Gordon Smith, if he doesn’t lose, is vying for the job? What else would he stand to gain from hanging out with Mitch and Trent all day? It does nothing for his “moderate” image.) My other best guess is that Mike Enzi, as the safest GOP Senator in the country (and also one of the most cretinous) gets the position in a walk.
Ah, but the minority in the Senate gets to have more fun (assuming the Democrats don’t reach 60 seats).
Info via Cilliza’s “The Fix”
Here: http://blog.washingtonpost.com…
44 year old future Senator with no competitive House races on the horizon suddenly leaves the Congress, and now is considered a non-factor in an open Senate seat? He’s the one who went trolling for whores, I think.
TPM got an explicit denial from Palfrey’s lawyer that Ferguson was on the famous phone records. Has anyone heard from said lawyer re: Pickering?
i have no evidence to this effect, but maybe lott’s implicated in the dc madam scandal. it would explain why he’s leaving so suddenly. also, who’s going to be the new whip i wonder.
if cochran decided to hell with it, and retired just for the heck of it, and we could run moore and musgrove for two DIFFERENT senate seats! it won’t happen i know, but a guy can dream can’t he?
Bush carried MS with 60% of the vote — more than three years ago.
But according to the 2004 CNN exit poll, Kerry won 63% of the MS voters under age 30. So if voters now age 18, 19, and 20 are like the twentysomethings, Democrats are gaining voters by about two to one.
Meanwhile, Bush got 75% of MS voters over age 65. But annual voter mortality is estimated as about 1.25%. Naturally, the impact is greatest on older voters. A statistician could do a better calculation, but by the back of the envelope, Bush voters have been dying off about twice as fast as Kerry voters.
In ’04 Bush got that same 60% as his approval rating (with only nine states giving a higher figure). But by October, ’07, his approval in MS fell to the 41-45% range (with three states in the lower range).
Of course, approval ratings don’t match vote share exactly, but if they did, a re-run of the ’04 election would see Bush get only get 45% of the MS vote.
Lott’s Senate seat is very winnable.