Top GOP Tax Writer Retiring

Yet another senior Republican is throwing in the towel on Capitol Hill.

Dave Camp, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee announced Monday afternoon that he would not run for re-election in 2014. The Michigan Republican who first took office in 1990 was due to step down as chair of the powerful tax-writing committee after this year and seen his efforts to push tax reform go nowhere in a gridlocked Congress. A tax reform proposal that he released in February was immediately shot down by fellow Republicans and what prospects there were for a bipartisan deal totally disappeared after Montana Democrat Max Baucus, the former chair of the Senate Finance Committee, resigned to become Ambassador to China.

It's expected that Camp will be succeeded on the Ways and Means Committee by 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, the current chair of the House Budget Committee. Ryan had long coveted the position heading Ways and Means and as chair would have an even more powerful pulpit to push his "Ryan Budget."

Camp is the second committee chair from Michigan to retire this week, follow Friday's announcement that Rep. Mike Rogers will retire from Congress to pursue a talk radio career. The outgoing Ways and Means chair's district which stretches across rural North Central Michigan, is likely to be held by the GOP but it could be competitive. Obama barely won it in 2008 and Mitt Romney won a mere 53% percent of the vote in 2012.

The filing deadline for prospective candidates is April 22.