Senator Pete Domenici to retire.

From AP-

WASHINGTON - Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, an influential Republican voice on budget issues for a generation, intends to retire at the end of his term next year, party officials said Wednesday.

These officials said the 75-year-old, six-term lawmaker plans to make a formal announcement Thursday in his home state. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the decision.

Domenici would be the fifth Republican senator to decline to seek a new term, giving Democrats an opportunity to expand their narrow majority in the 2008 elections. GOP Sens. John Warner of Virginia, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Larry Craig of Idaho and Wayne Allard of Colorado have previously announced plans not to run again.

New Mexico, Virginia and Colorado are seen as highly competitive states, and the Nebraska race could prove tight as well. President Bush carried New Mexico by a single percentage point over Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Colleagues had expected Domenici to seek a seventh term despite criticism over his possible role in the firing U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Domenici has acknowledged phoning Iglesias at a time when some Republicans wanted the prosecutor to hasten an investigation of Democrats before the 2006 elections.

The 2008 Senatorial elections are looking very ugly so far as the GOP prospects go. Keeping the present balance in the Senate is going to take a minor miracle. With Senators Hagel, Allard, Warner, and now Domenici retiring, Larry Craig still clinging to his Senate seat despite scandal(Granted Idaho is heavily Republican but Craig keeping his misdeeds alive by not resigning could endanger this seat even) , Senator Stevens of Alaska under investigation, and incumbents in at least Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire facing serious challenges, the chances of the Democrats getting sixty Senate seats is stronger than the GOP winning back the Senate at present. Remember you heard it here first.

Note- I'm predicting a four Senate seat gain at least by the Democrats in 2008.

Also discussing Domenici's retirement- Jim at Wizbang Politics, Poliblog,
Linked to- Big Dog, Bullwinkle, Outside the Beltway, Third World County,