Loyal Bushie Sen. Mel Martinez announced he will not be running for a second term.

By the looks of it, Martinez was going to get trounced:

A November Quinnipiac poll showed a 38 percent plurality of Florida voters believe Martinez doesn’t deserve another term, while only 36 percent believe he should be reelected. Against an unnamed Democratic opponent, Martinez trails by 4 points, 40 percent to 36 percent.

A Republican leadership aide told the Politico that Martinez’s decision to relinquish his spot in 2010 was a “total surprise to a lot of us” and that the Senator had confirmed to Republicans just last month that he would run again.

Martinez expects to finish out his term, but talk of potential candidates on both sides will start to heat up. We’ll be watching this development closely.