Tennessee's Fred Thompson Announces Retirement

W A S H I N G T O N, March 8, 2002 -- A little more than a month after the sudden death of his daughter, Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson announced today that he will retire from political office at the end of this year, when his term expires.

Although Thompson's retirement in theory would put this Senate seat in play, since Tennessee is a competitive state, Republicans have a candidate on their bench who is of such high caliber and so popular that, if he runs, he will likely take this seat off the table: two-time presidential candidate, former Education Secretary, and former Gov. Lamar Alexander.

Lamar (we'll refrain, for now, from adding the trademark "!") was talked up last year as a possible Senate candidate should Thompson retire and, we're told, is likely to run. The White House may put in a call to clinch the deal.

Thompson's departure, however, means Republicans will have to spend some money to hold the seat.

Still, with him in the race, Democrats might be hard-pressed to come up with a strong candidate.

Assuming Lamar does run, this is not a big political story in terms of a possible Senate seat pick-up by Democrats. What's most noteworthy is that Thompson, as stated above, claimed on September 24, 2001 that he would seek re-election for the sake of continuing to serve the country during the war. One could infer from his change of heart that the war is no longer quite the overpowering political issue it once was.

Thompson is of course perhaps most famous from his days as an actor, and for his role in the campaign finance hearings after the 1996 campaign.

Note that this is Al Gore's old Senate seat: Gore vacated it in 1992; a "caretaker" was appointed to hold it through the next election year, which was 1994; and when the caretaker opted not to run to fill the remainder of Gore's Senate term, Thompson ran and won the seat. After that two-year stint, he was elected to his first full Senate term in 1996.

In a statement, Gore said he wouldn't for the seat.