Frank will not run for reelection in redrawn district
Long-time Democratic Massachusetts Congressman decides to retire from public life
Facing a new electoral hurdle in a dramatically redrawn district, U.S. Representative Barney Frank, a stalwart of Massachusetts politics for more than 40 years and one of the nation’s leading liberal voices, announced Monday that he will leave Congress when his term expires.
Frank said the Massachusetts Legislature’s decision to carve up his congressional district and, in particular. to separate him from New Bedford, would have forced him to wage a reelection campaign in unfamiliar territory.
“I think I would have won but … it would have been a tough campaign,’’ said Frank, a Democrat first elected to Congress in 1980.
“I could not put the requisite effort into that,’’ Frank said, citing the demands of his current duties, the needs to raise funds and to introduce himself to new communities.
His decision to retire from public life is a milestone in Massachusetts and national politics. Frank, one of the first openly gay members of Congress, has for years been lionized by liberals across the country. Likewise, with his sharp tongue and rapier wit, Frank provoked antipathy from his most frequent targets, Republicans and social conservatives.
The announcement, delivered at a press conference in Newton’s City Hall, stunned the political world because Frank had told confidants, even in recent weeks, that he would fulfill a pledge he made in February to seek reelection, despite personal reservations.
But, according to close associates, the 71-year-old Newton Democrat decided on Thanksgiving Day that he did not have the energy or will to mount a difficult campaign in a redrawn district that would have contained 326,000 new constituents. He said it would be too much to tend to his current duties while campaigning in a new district.
“I can’t walk away from the fishing industry, and I can’t walk away from people I’ve grown close to and say, I’m sorry, I gotta go and worry about the Blackstone Valley and I don’t have time to do you,’’ Frank said, referring to his work with fishermen in New Bedford.
Frank, a New Jersey native who received bachelor’s and law degrees from Harvard, is one of the last politicians who earned his stripes as a top aide to Mayor Kevin White of Boston. He first entered elective office when he won a state legislative seat from the Back Bay in 1972, where he made a name for himself as a brash up-and-comer.
In Congress, Frank was able to weather an early scandal, involving a male prostitute who ran an escort service out of his home, to win reelection easily and become a leading voice on financial regulation and a standard-bearer for the Democratic Party.
“He was brilliant, funny, acerbic, strategic, and unashamedly liberal,’’ said Philip Johnston, a former state Democratic Party chairman who served in the Legislature with Frank. “And they’re in short supply these days.’’
Dan Payne, Frank’s longtime media consultant, called his retirement the end of an era. “Other than Ted Kennedy, Barney was the single most important liberal figure in Massachusetts for the past 40 years,’’ he said. ‘’His name appears in more Republican fund-raising letters than any other Democrat in the country.’’
Conservatives said Frank’s power had already disappeared.
“The republic is slightly safer, but it doesn’t matter with the Republicans capturing the House as strongly as they did in 2010,’’ said Grover Norquist, an influential conservative voice in Washington.
Norquist, a Massachusetts native, said most of Frank’s critiques amount to impugning the motives of conservatives and others who disagree with him.
“He’s never met a legitimate opponent in his life,’’ Norquist said. “Everybody who’s ever disagreed with him is a bad person.’’
Frank’s announcement prompted statements from a range of political figures, including President Obama, Governor Deval Patrick, and US Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, as well as leading political gay and lesbian advocacy groups.
Frank’s lowest point in his public career came in the 1980s, when he hired Steve Gobie, a male prostitute, out of his personal funds to work as a housekeeper and driver. He kicked him out of his Washington home after he found Gobie was running an escort service there. The House Ethics Committee found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the full House reprimanded Frank for his office’s help in fixing 33 traffic tickets for Gobie and providing some misstatements.
Although he has increasingly earned a reputation in recent years for being cranky, short-tempered, and irascible, Frank was particularly relaxed and reflective as he met with reporters, many of whom he has upbraided over the years.
He gave lengthy and detailed answers defending his role in the financial crisis, said he regretted not supporting the initial 1991 Iraq invasion, and said he would leave it to others to define his legacy.
“One advantage to me of not running for office is, I don’t even have to pretend to be nice to people I don’t like,’’ Frank said.
“I do not plan to be responsible for anyone’s action except for my own and Jim’s,’’ he said, referring to his partner, James Ready.