UPDATE: Bayh will consider private sector, university post

Sen. Evan Bayh announced Monday that he won’t seek a third term in Congress, giving Republicans a chance to pick up a Senate
seat.

"To put it in words I think most people can understand: I love working for the people of Indiana,
I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives, but I do not love Congress," Bayh said
at a news conference at IUPUI’s University Place Conference Center and Hotel in Indianapolis, where he
was joined by his wife and two sons.

The departure of Bayh, who was on Barack
Obama’s short list of vice presidential candidate prospects in 2008, continues a recent exodus from Congress
among both Democrats and Republicans, including veteran Democrats Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and
Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.

The announcements have sprung up in rapid-fire fashion amid polls showing
a rising anti-incumbent fervor and voter anger over Washington partisanship, high unemployment, federal deficits and lucrative
banking industry bonuses.

Bayh, who won the seat to the Senate in 1998, attributed his decision to the bitter
partisan divides that have dominated Congress in recent years, though he praised his colleagues as hard
workers devoting to serving the public.

"My decision should not be interpreted for
more than it is, a very difficult, deeply personal one," he said in front of a standing-room-only
crowd. "I am an executive at heart. I value my independence. I am not motivated by strident partisanship
or ideology."

Bayh, 54, said he believed he would have been re-elected this November,
despite "the current challenging environment." He said it was time for
him to "contribute to society in another way," either by creating jobs with
a business, leading a college or university, or running a charity.

His retirement from a Senate
seat from Republican-leaning Indiana also adds to the struggle Democrats will face this fall to prevent an erosion of the
59 votes they have in the chamber.

"After all these years, my passion for service to our fellow citizens
is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned," Bayh said at the news
conference, which was attended by a number of high-profile Indiana Democrats, including former Indianapolis
mayor Bart Peterson.

The Democrats will have to scramble to find a replacement
candidate for Bayh’s seat. Friday is the filing deadline for the May primary, although the party would
have until June 30 to select a replacement candidate.

Bayh’s name was among a handful of
well-known Democrats prominently mentioned as possible vice presidential candidates in both Sen. John Kerry’s 2004
run for the presidency and Obama’s successful run for the White House. He was believed to have been on Obama’s short list.
Obama settled on then-Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.

Less than two weeks ago, former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats,
a Republican, announced that he would try to reclaim his old seat from Bayh. The move by Coats came as
the GOP was still celebrating Republican Scott Brown’s January upset to take Edward Kennedy’s former
seat in Massachusetts.

North Dakota’s Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan also is retiring, and
his party doesn’t have anyone to challenge the Republican, Gov. John Hoeven. Democrats also failed to
recruit their top candidate in Delaware. Biden’s son, Beau Biden, eschewed a run against Republican Mike Castle.

Bayh, who said that he made his decision over the previous two days, is serving his second six-year term in the Senate.
He said he was glad to focus on his final  months in office "unencumbered by having to run for reelection."

Bayh served two terms as Indiana’s governor before winning the first of his two Senate terms
in 1998. He had until recent weeks been regarded as a near certainty for re-election, having raised nearly
$13 million for his campaign and facing little-known Republican opposition until national Republicans recruited
Coats to enter the race.

Bayh’s name was already well known when he first ran for political office in 1986, winning
the race for Indiana secretary of state that year. His father, Birch, won the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate in 1962
and was an unabashed Great Society liberal.

The younger Bayh ran for governor in 1988 on a platform of fiscal
responsibility, reducing what he considered to be a bloated government bureaucracy and opposing tax increases.

Bayh served two terms as Indiana’s governor before winning the first of his two Senate terms
in 1998.

Find IBJ‘s initial story here.