House Republicans have touted some impressive recruitment efforts of late, and the efforts of Senate Republicans have gotten a bit less attention (not least because there are a lot fewer Democrats in the Senate and a lot more Republicans, relatively speaking, and the majority in that chamber is not at stake in 2010).

But that’s not to say that there hasn’t been activity. At last Friday’s Floyd County GOP event, I was reminded by several people (not least the hard campaigning of the candidates and their supporters) that there is a spirited Republican primary underway in Senate District 46.

That seat is currently held by Connie Sipes, but it won’t be held by her after next November.

She’s retiring:

INDIANAPOLIS – State Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany, will not seek re-election next year, ending a 12-year tenure at the Statehouse that included a climb into the chamber’s Democratic leadership.

Sipes was to make the announcement Thursday night at a Democratic dinner in New Albany. Floyd County Commissioner Charles “Chuck” Freiberger was expected to use the event to say he was running for the District 46 seat.

Read more after the leap.

Already, two Republicans – Jeffersonville City Councilman Ron Grooms and New Albany-Floyd County Schools Board member Lee Ann Wiseheart – have announced they will also seek the seat.

Sipes planned to endorse Freiberger at the Floyd County Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson dinner Thursday.

“He has extensive leadership experience in county government and as an educator, and he has demonstrated his commitment to the community as well as a keen understanding of the local issues,” Sipes said in remarks prepared for the dinner.

Sipes, a former elementary school teacher and principal, said she intends to fulfill the rest of her term, which ends in 2010.

Democrats first appointed Sipes to the Senate in 1997 to fill an unexpired term and since then she has been elected to three consecutive four-year terms.

She has been active in education and health issues since she came to the Senate. Last year, her Democratic colleagues picked Sipes to be the minority caucus chairwoman, a job that makes her part of the leadership team that guides caucus positions and decisions.

Freiberger is in his third term as a commissioner. He previously served on the Floyd County Council for 12 years. He has been a teacher at Floyd Central High School and Highland Hills Middle School for 26 years.

Sipes’ decision to not seek reelection was, I told, a long time in coming and her anointed Democrat successor–whose campaign will be birthed on the night that Howard Dean addresses the Floyd County Democrats–is not unexpected either.

The real question, I suppose, will be whether Sipes does indeed sit out the full term, or whether she resigns and retires early so that Democrats can pick a successor to her in a caucus and give that chosen one a minor leg up on Republican challengers Wiseheart and Grooms.

It wouldn’t be the first time that legislators from either party have left a seat mid-term in order to make election chances for their party easier, particularly Democratic legislators (see: Denbo, Jerry).

This post is also available at Hoosierpundit.