Yes, the same is true here as well. Barbarian Leaders are a dime a dozen (baker's dozen at that) and the Senator (even though he is mobile in CoE3) just gets in the way of doing things.
Nobody mourns a politician's demise...
The Senator is interesting in the sense that as long as he has any commanders at all, both of his starting ones (Senator and Centurion) are eminently expendable. As soon as you can recruit a Leo, the Centurion goes from main army commander to troop ferry, since the Leo has leadership bonuses (morale boost) and the Centurion does not.
Baron and Burgmeister can also lose the secondary heroes without much impact, though High Lords are expensive to replace. The main heroes of these classes you don't want to lose because of their combat abilities or army boost abilities.