Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl won’t run for reelection

Sen. Jon Kyl, the second-highest ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, announced Thursday that he will not run for reelection, setting off a scramble for a seat long considered safe for the GOP.

Kyl, 68, who was first elected in 1994, said he had no health or other issues leading him to retire, but that it was the right time to step down.

“It’s time for me to have an opportunity to do something else,” the Arizona senator said at a news conference in downtown Phoenix, with his wife, Carol, at his side.

As the minority whip in the Senate, Kyl has been a vocal critic of President Obama’s agenda on spending, healthcare, immigration and foreign policy.

He is the fifth senator to announce retirement this year, joining Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), all of whom have said they will leave the Senate in January 2013.

Kyl’s retirement has been a matter of speculation for months. He said Thursday he would have retired in 2006, but it was clear the GOP would have lost his seat in a Democratic year.

Handicappers predict Democrats will have a hard time keeping control of the Senate in 2012, so the party leapt on Kyl’s announcement as a chance to pick up a seat.

Republicans, however, are confident they can hold the seat. The party has an edge in registration in Arizona, and Democrats have not won a Senate seat there since 1988. Republicans won every statewide election in 2010, and many political professionals on both sides of the aisle agree that the Arizona Democratic Party is weak.

Among the possible GOP contenders are Reps. Jeff Flake and Trent Franks, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, Maricopa County Supervisor Andrew Kunasek and former Reps. John Shadegg and J.D. Hayworth, who lost a primary challenge to Sen. John McCain last year.

“The list will be long,” said Doug Cole, a veteran GOP consultant in Phoenix. “It will create quite a cascading effect on the Arizona political scene.”

The list of possible Democratic candidates is far smaller. Topping it is former Gov. Janet Napolitano, who was once one of Arizona’s most popular political figures and is now secretary of Homeland Security. But Napolitano’s role in the Obama administration hasn’t helped her profile in Arizona, where a poll last week by a Democratic group found she has a 55% disapproval rating.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been frequently mentioned as a possible contender for Kyl’s seat before she was gravely wounded last month in an assassination attempt in Tucson.

Other Democrats who may be interested include former state Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard — who lost a bid for governor last year — Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, U.S. Atty. Dennis Burke and businessman Jim Pederson, who lost to Kyl in 2006 despite spending an estimated $10 million of his own money.

nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com