No Democrats qualified to run for the seat of retiring Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) by the Tuesday noon deadline, a huge relief for party leaders who feared that an obscure candidate could make it onto the ballot and seriously complicate Democratic prospects for holding onto the seat. State party officials will now select the party’s Senate nominee for November.

According to the state elections division, no Democratic candidate other than Bayh had collected the required 4,500 certified petition signatures, including the requisite 500 from each of the state’s nine congressional districts, to make the ballot.

Tamyra D’Ippolito, a Bloomington cafe owner who had been challenging Bayh for the nomination, appeared to fall far short of the mark. Brad King, co-director of the Indiana Election Division, reported that D’Ippolito had gathered only 110 signatures across the state, as of mid-afternoon...

President Obama kicks off what might be called his "Save the Senate" tour this week, heading west to campaign for two embattled Democrats trailing badly against Republican challengers - including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

With high-profile Democrats already bailing out of re-election campaigns - Sen. Evan Bayh's decision on Monday to drop out of the race in Indiana brings the number of retirees to five - Mr. Obama is putting his popularity and fundraising prowess on the line as he tries to help his party hold the majority in the Senate.

Local Republicans are salivating at the prospect of Mr. Obama dropping into town to campaign for their opponents.

"The hardworking families in Nevada see right through any type of political dog-and-pony shows taking place this week in Las Vegas," said former state Sen. Sue Lowden, a Republican running for Mr. Reid's seat...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama suffered another setback as a fifth Democratic senator, centrist heavyweight Evan Bayh, opted not to run for re-election in dismay at the bitter political climate.

Obama, who reportedly tried to talk Bayh out of retiring, faces a looming Republican resurgence and risks seeing strong majorities in Congress crumble in November mid-term elections, taking with them his ambitious reform agenda.

With his tearful wife and two sons at his side, Bayh, 54, expressed disenchantment with excessive partisanship as he announced his decision at a press conference in his home state of Indiana...

Through a twist of fate, a cafe owner from southern Indiana holds the hand that could throw the state Democratic Party into chaos.

Sen. Evan Bayh's retirement left political novice Tamyra D'Ippolito as the only Democrat with a shot at meeting the noon deadline Tuesday to qualify for the ballot in the May 4 primary. As of Monday afternoon, she needed about 1,000 more signatures to reach the required 4,500. She told Fox News on Tuesday she's confident she'll make it.

"We're gonna have the signatures," D'Ippolito said. "We're going to have them and we will be running."

That could be a shocker for establishment Democrats. Party leaders in Indiana and Washington say they fear that if she qualifies, she'll lose the seat in the general election to a more experienced Republican candidate like former Sen. Dan Coats...

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this November, an unexpected decision that hands Republicans an opportunity for a pick-up in a year when Democrats are already defending several open Senate seats.

The two-term senator is known as a moderate Democrat. Former GOP Sen. Dan Coats had been planning to challenge Bayh in November -- but a senior Democratic source told Fox News that recent polling showed Bayh way ahead of Coats, and that the retirement must have been a personal decision...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing a $300 billion "fix" to the Senate health care bill, saying that her chamber could approve the Senate's package if those changes are made first.

Senior Democratic aides told Fox News that Pelosi has offered up the new package of changes to Senate Democratic leaders, with the hope that they will be able to pass it using a controversial procedural maneuver known as "reconciliation." The maneuver would allow Democrats to pass the measure with just 51 votes, without having to first overcome the normal 60-vote threshold.

Some Democrats are keen on using that process, since the election last week of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts broke the Democrats' 60-vote supermajority. However, some Democratic moderates -- notably Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh -- have balked at using the controversial tactic to ram through health care reform measures.