Veteran Rep. Lynn Woolsey to call it quits at the end of her term

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a Bay Area liberal and leading antiwar voice in Congress, won’t be seeking reelection next year, perhaps easing the scramble among her California Democratic colleagues for a place to run after this year’s tumultuous redrawing of district boundaries.

‘I will turn 75 years old just before the next election day, and after two decades of service to this district, it will be time for me to move on,’ Woolsey said Monday in Petaluma.

Woolsey, in her 10th term, is among the California House members from both parties whose districts underwent change in draft maps recently released by a voter-approved citizens redistricting commission. Woolsey was critical of the redistricting, but an aide said the maps were not a factor in her decision.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut praised Woolsey as a ‘tireless voice for progressive causes.’

‘I was the first to force a vote on ending the war in Iraq,’’ Woolsey said Monday, ‘and I would not keep quiet even when the leaders of my party might have preferred that I did.’

Just last week, she called President Obama’s planned drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan a ‘profound disappointment,’ saying it didn’t go far enough.

-- Richard Simon