FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2009 file photo, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democratic officials say Johnson intends to announce his retirement on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, a decision that gives Republicans a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in 2014. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2009 file photo, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democratic officials say Johnson intends to announce his retirement on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, a decision that gives Republicans a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in 2014. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ? Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota intends to announce plans to retire when his term ends next year, Democratic officials told The Associated Press on Monday.
Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2006 and later returned to the Senate and won re-election in 2008 while sometimes using a motorized scooter.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt Johnson's formal announcement, expected Tuesday in South Dakota.
His departure gives Republicans a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in a deeply conservative state. Johnson is the fifth Democratic incumbent to announce plans not to run again in 2014, joining Carl Levin of Michigan, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.
Some South Dakota Democrats have promoted the idea that the senator's son, U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, should seek the Democratic nomination if his father retired. Another possible candidate is former U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.
Former GOP Gov. Mike Rounds previously announced his candidacy for the seat. Rounds was a state senator from 1991 to 2001 before serving two terms as governor from 2003 to 2011. After leaving office in early 2011, Rounds returned to his job as president and CEO of an insurance and real estate company based in Pierre.
The Democratic senator had surgery in 2006 to stop bleeding in his brain caused by arteriovenous malformation, a condition that causes arteries and veins in the brain to grow abnormally large, become tangled and sometimes burst. Johnson has made huge strides in recovering, but his speech is slowed and he sometimes uses a motorized scooter when he needs to get around quickly.
Johnson was elected to the U.S. House in 1986 and to the Senate in 1996. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2008. He also previously served in the Legislature.
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