Another Veteran Lawmaker Decides to Retire
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US House of Representatives(WASHINGTON) — Washington Democrat Norman Dicks, who is currently serving his 18th term in the House of Representatives, announced Friday he will not seek a ninteenth term, opting instead to retire at the end of the current session.
“I am announcing today my intention to complete my service in the House of Representatives at the end of the current session but not to be a candidate for re-election to the 113th Congress,” Dicks wrote in a statement. “After 18 terms representing the people of the 6th Congressional District of Washington, preceded by eight years on the Staff of Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Suzie and I have made the decision to change gears and enjoy life at a different pace.”
Dicks becomes the thirteenth House Democrat not seeking reelection. Eight other Democrats are also leaving the House to seek higher political office.
Dicks was best known in Congress as an appropriator, landing a rare assignment on the exclusive appropriations committee as a freshman lawmaker in 1977. Through the years, he rose to the top Democratic position on the panel.
Counted among Dicks’ top achievements in the House is his connection to the military, particularly through his role as the ranking Democratic member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Both Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton occupy his district, and he was an ardent champion for Boeing, for which he helped secure a winning contract for the KC-X aerial refueling tanker.
Dicks, a former linebacker at the University of Washington, was expected to win had he sought another term. Throughout 18 terms, the closest anyone came to defeating him was in 1980, when he won 54-46 percent by about 16,000 votes. In 2010 he won by more than 42,000 votes, 58 to 42 over Republican candidate Doug Cloud.
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