WASHINGTON - Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., 65, is expected to announce today that he will not seek re-election.
Dodd, who also is a member of the Rules Committee, has scheduled a press conference for noon from his home today in East Haddam. His retirement, after 30 years in the Senate, would come as the committee is working to revise its financial regulatory reform legislation after Dodd’s first discussion draft met with heavy criticism from some of his Democratic colleagues as well as Republicans.
He was facing a tough re-election with many questioning whether he would win the race. He was criticized for moving his family to Iowa during his unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid and for receiving favorable mortgage treatment from Countrywide Financial. The Senate Ethics Committee cleared him of any wrongdoing last year.
Many Democrats expect Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will run to replace Dodd. Blumenthal has been very critical of the credit rating agencies and has been aggressive in securities enforcement in the state, tackling national issues at the state level. He played a key role in investigating and pursuing auction rate securities abuses.
Dodd followed his father, the late Sen. Thomas J. Dodd, into public service. He was elected to Congress in 1974, serving three terms in the House of Representatives. He was then elected to five terms in the Senate. He failed in his presidential bid in the 2008 election.
Dodd was born on May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, Conn., the fifth of six children. He graduated from Providence College, spent two years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic and later enlisted in the Army National Guard and served in the U.S. Army Reserves. He received a law degree from the University of Louisville School of Law and practiced law in New London before being elected to Congress.
He currently lives in East Haddam with his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd and their daughters Grace and Christina.
