Democrats’ Senate Hopes Dim as Kerrey Drops Out

Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), a Vietnam War hero once considered a rising political star, announced Thursday that he will not run for reelection this year, dealing a serious blow to Democratic chances of capturing a majority in the chamber.

Kerrey, 56, who won the Medal of Honor for leading his Navy SEAL platoon to safety after a firefight in Vietnam in which he lost part of his right leg, said at a news conference in Omaha that he has grown tired of the Senate and is eager to return to private life.

Kerrey’s decision jolted his party on one of its key goals in the 2000 election: erasing the Republican’s 55-45 Senate majority.

Several GOP-held Senate seats appear vulnerable this fall. But to retake the chamber, Democrats will have to win most of these Republican seats while holding their own losses to a minimum.

Kerrey’s departure leaves the GOP favored to win the Senate race in Nebraska: He was the only Democrat among the state’s major officeholders. And that, combined with tight races for Democratic seats in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Nevada, have dimmed the party’s Senate prospects.

“The math just doesn’t add up any more for a Democratic takeover in the Senate,” said Marshall Wittmann, analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “With Kerrey no longer running, winning [the Senate] will be like threading a needle for them.”

Democrats remain confident that they can regain control of the 435-member House, which Republicans control by a scant five-vote margin. And even if Democrats fall short of winning the Senate, they will push hard to reduce the Republican majority.

Although Kerrey did not say so publicly, friends suggested that a major reason for his decision to give up his seat was his frustration over the polarization that has plagued the Senate of late, making it difficult to push through legislation. A pragmatist, Kerrey often led the way in pushing through political compromises, such as one in 1998 that resulted in an overhaul of the Internal Revenue Service.

A former governor of Nebraska, he was elected to the Senate in 1988 and easily won reelection in 1994--the year Democrats were swept out of office in many other states and the GOP grabbed control of both chambers of Congress.

He sought the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination and, with a campaign focused on health-care reform, initially was rated a top contender. But his hopes quickly faded as then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton claimed the Democratic nod and went on to win the White House.

Kerrey did little to hide his disdain for Clinton during the ’92 campaign and he was regarded with suspicion by the new administration. The relationship worsened in 1996 when Kerrey was quoted in Esquire magazine as describing Clinton as “an unusually good liar.”