DaytonDailyNews.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. George Voinovich said he could have faced the grueling re-election bid, the hours spent making calls to donors and appearing on the stump.

What he couldn't face was the reality of spending so much time away from his wife Janet.

Health issues didn't have a whole lot to do with the Ohio Republican's announcement Monday that he will retire at the end of his term next year. Voinovich has had a Pacemaker since 2003 but is healthy. Janet, four years his senior, has some heart issues that he characterized as sporadic and not serious.

Ultimately, it was Janet's 76th birthday on Dec. 14, that led him to reconsider seeking a third term. Janet's elder sister died at 75. Her sister Nancy had a stroke about five years ago, and has been incapacitated since.

The senator wants to retire while he and his wife are still healthy.

His decision caps one of the most storied political careers in recent Ohio political history. First elected to the Ohio General Assembly at age 30 in 1966, Voinovich has held public office for the majority of his life. He's been a county auditor, a county commissioner and lieutenant governor, but his career really took off after he replaced now U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich as Cleveland mayor in 1979.

His victory, however, was marred with sorrow. At the end of the race, Voinovich's 9-year-old daughter, Molly, was struck by a van and killed. Her death spurred both Kucinich and Voinovich to stand down in the final days of the race.

As Cleveland's mayor, Voinovich was widely credited with sparking a renaissance in a bankrupt city that had become the butt of jokes.

In 1988, Voinovich ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, challenging Sen. Howard Metzenbaum. Two years later, he ran for governor and won, and easily won re-election in 1994. As governor, he is credited with helping to repair a struggling economy and increasing school funding. In 1998, unable to run for a third term as governor because of term limits, he ran for the U.S. Senate and won.

A fiscal conservative both politically and personally — he once reportedly fished a penny out of a men's room urinal — Voinovich in 1999 voted against the Republicans' $792 billion tax cut, favoring instead a smaller tax cut. He bucked President George W. Bush again in February 2003 on a $700 billion tax cut package.

A frequent refrain has been that he didn't want to leave his grandchildren a fiscal mess. "No one upholds our party's fidelity to conservative fiscal discipline better than George Voinovich," said Robert Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, who himself will step down at the end of this month. "I know he won't let up until his last moment in office, and I'm glad he'll be there for the next two years to help protect our wallets and keep the Democrat Congress in check."

A lifelong Cleveland resident, Voinovich was something of a political nightmare to Democrats, who couldn't necessarily count on support in northeast Ohio when Voinovich was on the ticket. One of the few Republican senators to back a bailout of the U.S. auto industry last year, he has been lambasted by environmentalists for stands opposing stricter mileage standards for cars or for fighting global warming legislation that he worried might endanger Ohio's manufacturing base. But those very positions earned him affection from blue collar workers who worried about their own job security.

He has often drawn the ire of conservatives but has a lifetime rating of 72 percent from the American Conservative Union, which is comparable to those posted by Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Norm Coleman of Minnesota.

His retirement is part of what's becoming a flood of Republican senators retiring. U.S. Sens. Kit Bond of Missouri, Sam Brownback of Kansas and Mel Martinez of Florida have all signaled they will step down rather than run again in 2010.

On Monday, Voinovich said that if he were to run he'd have to spend half of his time raising money and the other half legislating. In such dire times he said he prefers to do the latter — and devote whatever time he has left to his family.

"Most politicians have a wife that is in front of them pulling them or a wife that is pushing them," he said. "My wife has always been at my side. My wife has been there for me, and I'd like to be there for her."

Staff Writer William Hershey contributed to this story.

Other possible replacements

Ohio State Auditor Mary Taylor

Age: 42

Hometown: Green

Career: accountant, Green city council woman, state representative 2003-2006; state auditor, 2007 to present

Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher

Age: 57

Hometown: Shaker Heights

Career: Ohio state representative, 1980-1982; Ohio state senator, 1983-1991, Ohio attorney general, 1991-1995, Lt. Gov., 2007 to present

Ohio Secretary of State

Jennifer Brunner

Age: 51

Hometown: Columbus

Career: deputy director, legislative counsel for Ohio General Assembly, 1983-1987, attorney, 1988-2000, judge, Franklin County Common Pleas Court, 2000-2005; Ohio Secretary of State, 2007 to present.