Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, announced today that she won't seek re-election in November 2012.
Hutchison, who last month praised the NCUA for "not burdening the taxpayer'' when rescuing corporate credit unions, has been in the Senate since winning a 1993 special election.
CUNA's Credit Union Legislative Action Council contributed $10,000 to her last re-election campaign.
In a letter to Texans she wrote that she wanted to live "full-time in Texas with my family" and was "forever grateful for the privilege of working for you in the United States Senate.''
Hutchison has had fairly easy re-election campaigns (she won with 62% of the vote in 2006 and 65% in 2000), but there had been some speculation that she might have a conservative challenger in the GOP primary.
She unsuccessfully challenged Texas Gov. Rick Perry in last year's GOP gubernatorial primary.
She praised the NCUA during her opening statement at the Senate Banking Committee's oversight hearing on the state of credit unions.
