Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) on Thursday announced he would not seek re-election in 2012. The Wall Street Journal touched bases with the NAM’s Dena Battle, who shared the association’s appreciation with Sen. Kyl’s long and effective involvement on the estate tax issue.

“We’ve had a lot of champions from both sides of the aisle for death tax repeal over the years, but Senator Kyl has clearly been the leader,” said Dena Battle, a lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers, using opponents term for the tax. “In terms of both policy and keeping the stakeholders together, Kyl led the charge.”

Sen. Kyl supported NAM’s “Key Vote” positions on manufacturing issues 92 percent of the time during the 111th Congress. He’s a strong supporter of industry and business, and we look forward to continue working with him over the next two years.