Chris Dodd is staying on as chairman of the Banking Committee:

Sen. Christopher Dodd’s expected announcement that he will remain in charge of the Banking Committee should give a big boost to his longtime colleague Tom Harkin while setting off a shuffle on other Senate panels.
Dodd has played stand-in for the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) for most of this year on the pivotal Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) panel during the health reform debate, raising questions about which role he might decide to play full-time after Kennedy’s death. Now, Dodd has decided to stay put with the Banking Committee, two senate sources tell POLITICO.
Aside from Harkin, another potential winner from this round of musical chairmanships is Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) who may end up leapfrogging several more senior members of the Agriculture Committee to take over that panel – a move that could be key in persuading voters back home to send her back to Washington during the toughest reelection fight of his 29-year senate career.
With Dodd staying put at Banking, Harkin would likely get the gavel on the HELP panel, which had been chaired by Kennedy, and thrust the liberal Iowa Democrat into the middle of the red-hot debate over health care reform.
Both Harkin and Dodd are strong supporters of the “public option” in health care legislation. But with Dodd in full reelection mode and worried about losing his seat in 2010, Harkin will likely be less impacted by political pressures to either cut a deal to pass something – or refuse to budge and please the left – as the chairman of HELP.
Harkin hasn’t shown his hand yet, but many expect him to take HELP given that the Agriculture Committee passed a five-year farm bill last Congress.
Harkin’s ascension at HELP, in turn, would open up the Agriculture Committee for a new chairman. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is next in seniority but he is already Judiciary chairman and is unlikely to give that post up.