Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank will not seek re-election for his seat on the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, The Boston Globe reports.
The 71-year-old congressman will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. “to formally announce and answer questions about his decision not to run for re-election in 2012,” according to a statement obtained by the Globe.
A “close adviser” to the Globe said that Frank’s decision was based primarily on the premise that he would have to run for re-election in a new district in 2012, as Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law new congressional districts for the state last week.
In 2010 when Republicans regained control of the House, Frank won re-election over Republican candidate Sean Bielat, 53 to 43 percent.
Many Republicans have accused Frank as helping create the foreclosure crisis for advising the federal government and banks to approve unqualified buyers.
“He was brilliant, funny, acerbic, strategic, and unashamedly liberal. And they’re in short supply these days,” Philip W. Johnston, former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said of Frank in an interview with the Globe.
Frank was first elected to Massachusetts’ 4th district in 1980, and became one of the first congressman to publicly admit that he is gay in 1987. He has served 16 consecutive terms and has long been known as one of the strongest liberal voices in Congress. The Harvard College and Harvard University Law School graduate was an assistant to Boston Mayor Kevin White in the late 1960s.
According to Fox News, Frank becomes the 18th Democrat to either retire or seek a new office during this “cycle.”
Frank’s sudden announcement comes after his insistence that he intended to run for reelection, despite the loss of a Massachusetts Congressional seat due to population shifts around the country. In 2010, Frank faced an unusually tough re-election fight against Bielat, a former Marine. Already this round, Republican Elizabeth Childs of Brookline, a state mental health commissioner under former Gov. Mitt Romney, has announced her intention to seek Frank’s congressional seat.
