Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will resign his Senate seat before September, according to several reports. Several reports say that that Florida's junior senator, who had already planned to retire in 2010, told his staff this morning that he will leave his seat early and will not return to Washington after the Senate's August recess.
Martinez has not publicly confirmed his resignation and has not scheduled a public announcement, according to his Senate office.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio are in a pitched Republican primary battle to replace Martinez in 2010.
According to Florida state law, the governor has the responsibility of naming a replacement to fill the Martinez seat until the next general election, should the senator resign. 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."
If Martinez does step down, it would 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.
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.
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