Mel Martinez Resigning Senate Seat

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) has told supporters in a statement that he will resign his Senate seat as soon as a replacement can be found in order to return to Florida and his family. Martinez is Florida's junior senator and had already announced his plan to retire when his term ends in 2011.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio are in a pitched Republican primary battle to replace Martinez in the Senate.

Martinez's resignation will not change the balance of power in the Senate. According to Florida state law, the governor has the responsibility of naming a replacement to fill the Martinez seat until the next general election in 2010. When The Miami Herald asked Crist in July about rumors that Martinez might soon resign, Crist said, "Anything's possible. I don't think that's something he [Martinez] really is considering."

Today, Crist told the AP that he will not appoint himself to the seat.

Martinez's departure will mark the third time he has resigned a position before the end of his term. In 2007, he relinquished his position as the chairman of the Republican National Committee in the middle of a two-year term. In December 2003 Martinez gave up his appointment as George W. Bush's secretary of Housing and Urban Development to run for the U.S. Senate, reportedly at the urging of the White House.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) also recently announced that she is likely to leave the Senate before the end of the year in order to focus on her race to become Texas governor.

Martinez was born in Cuba and grew up there until he fled alone to become a refugee in Florida at the age of 15. He is one of two Hispanics in the Senate. Yesterday, he voted to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and was one of just nine Republicans to do so.

P.D.'s Jill Lawrence contributed to this report.