Hispanics Lose Key Democratic Member as Dodd Announces Retirement

Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, often viewed as a friend of the Latino community, has announced his plans to not seek re-election this coming November.

Dodd, who is currently facing slumping poll numbers, joins fellow Democrat Byron Dorgan of North Dakota in retirement. Their departures may affect the delicate hold Democrats have on their 60-vote majority in the Senate.

The Connecticut senator was first elected to the Senate in 1980 and will long be remembered for his association with the financial system bailout.

In his early 20s, Dodd spent two years with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic where he learned Spanish. His oldest brother, a professor of Latin American history, spent eight years as U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and Uruguay.

The senator is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, which covers Latin America and has also played an important role in global drug policy. He said last year, “The Western Hemisphere is not a distant land with distant interests. It is not our backyard, but instead, our neighborhood, and our partnerships in it should be as deep as our interdependence and as durable as our shared values.”

Dodd has been a long time critic of U.S. policy towards Cuba and of the embargo which he says has failed to bring about change and democracy on the island. He has co-sponsored legislation to allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba.

He has also been an advocate for immigration reform saying that it is important for Congress to act quickly on the issue. Dodd has called for increased penalties for employers of illegal immigrants, strengthening the Southern border in partnership with the Mexican government and provisions to allow those in the United States illegally.

poder360.com