diff --git a/Lib/smtpd.py b/Lib/smtpd.py
index 3992d7bb4e6c..c3bd6a5addad 100755
--- a/Lib/smtpd.py
+++ b/Lib/smtpd.py
@@ -274,15 +274,21 @@ def __init__(self, localaddr, remoteaddr):
         self._localaddr = localaddr
         self._remoteaddr = remoteaddr
         asyncore.dispatcher.__init__(self)
-        self.create_socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
-        # try to re-use a server port if possible
-        self.set_reuse_addr()
-        self.bind(localaddr)
-        self.listen(5)
-        print >> DEBUGSTREAM, \
-              '%s started at %s\n\tLocal addr: %s\n\tRemote addr:%s' % (
-            self.__class__.__name__, time.ctime(time.time()),
-            localaddr, remoteaddr)
+        try:
+            self.create_socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+            # try to re-use a server port if possible
+            self.set_reuse_addr()
+            self.bind(localaddr)
+            self.listen(5)
+        except:
+            # cleanup asyncore.socket_map before raising
+            self.close()
+            raise
+        else:
+            print >> DEBUGSTREAM, \
+                  '%s started at %s\n\tLocal addr: %s\n\tRemote addr:%s' % (
+                self.__class__.__name__, time.ctime(time.time()),
+                localaddr, remoteaddr)
 
     def handle_accept(self):
         conn, addr = self.accept()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index f93f5a9e7c4b..1625c0cd2080 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ Build
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #6589: cleanup asyncore.socket_map in case smtpd.SMTPServer constructor 
+  raises an exception.
+
 - Issue #8959: fix regression caused by using unmodified libffi
   library on Windows.  ctypes does now again check the stack before
   and after calling foreign functions.