By Julie Hirschfeld Davis Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Republican U.S. Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona announced today that he won’t run for re-election in 2012.
Kyl, the second-ranking Senate Republican leader, made the announcement at a news conference in Phoenix. He is serving his third six-year term.
He is the fifth senator so far to decide against seeking another term next year.
As Senate Minority Whip, Kyl serves as the chief nose- counter for Republicans in the Senate. He was slated to give up that post next year.
Kyl, 68, served four terms in the House before his 1994 election to the Senate, where he has been a key architect of Republicans’ agenda in recent years, including the push for tax cuts.
As a member of the Judiciary Committee, he also played a major role in opposing President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominations of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both of whom won Senate confirmation.
Other senators who have decided not to run next year are Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, Democrats Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Jim Webb of Virginia and Democrat-turned- independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
Potential Republican candidates to succeed Kyl include Representative Jeff Flake. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, is seen as a possible Democratic contender.
