The seat of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) is up for election in 2010, when she will be 74.
"I don't want to put Senator Mikulski in an early grave, but . . . there's certainly going to be an opportunity in the future for someone as bright and well-qualified as Chris," Miller said.
Waiting also could enhance Van Hollen's position in the House, others suggested. "He's smart, energetic, aggressive and hails from a safe district," said Thomas F. Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. "Within a few years, there could be dozens of House Democrats who owe their political careers to him, and that kind of leverage will help make him a powerhouse."
Hoyer, an early Cardin backer, said Van Hollen's decision "will clearly be to Cardin's benefit."
"I am very pleased we will have a clearer Democratic primary," Hoyer said.
If Van Hollen had gotten in, he could have made it easier for Mfume to win the nomination merely by securing his base of support among African Americans.
In an interview yesterday, Mfume warned the Democratic establishment against rallying around Cardin. "I have said all along this is not going to be a coronation, although some may think that will be the case," said Mfume, former head of the NAACP.
Baltimore community activist A. Robert Kaufman also is a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Several other Democrats -- including Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens, Montgomery County businessman Josh Rales and Lise Van Susteren, a forensic psychiatrist and sister of Fox News personality Greta Van Susteren -- are mulling a Senate bid.
"I don't like coronations," Owens said yesterday in a telephone interview from Maine.
Van Hollen's decision to sit out a race bucks his political history. Since his election to the House of Delegates in 1990, Van Hollen has developed a reputation for relishing a tough political fight.
In 1994, he gave up his safe House seat to challenge incumbent state Sen. Patricia R. Sher (D-Montgomery), who helped elect him in 1990. Van Hollen, the son of a former ambassador, defeated Sher 3 to 1.
In 2002, Van Hollen gave up his state Senate seat to ran against Mark K. Shriver, a Kennedy relative and state delegate with a nationwide following, for the Democratic nomination for Congress. Despite being vastly outspent, Van Hollen beat Shriver by 2,400 votes. He then went on to defeat eight-term incumbent Constance A. Morella (R), becoming one of two Democrats to unseat an incumbent Republican that year.
If Van Hollen ran for the Senate, at least a half-dozen Democrats from Montgomery County were poised to run for his congressional seat next year. That jockeying is now on hold because Van Hollen intends to seek reelection.
"A large part of me feels relieved, because now it's a decision I don't have to make," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), one of many politicians who were looking at Van Hollen's seat. "Others are probably thinking: 'Rats!' "
