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Subscribe to RSSSen. Frank Lautenberg, an 89-year-old Democrat from New Jersey, has announced his will retire instead of seeking a sixth term. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Updated 3:40 p.m. ET: New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D, won't seek re-election next November, a Democratic source confirmed to NBC News.
Lautenberg, the 89-year-old senator who served for almost two decades in the Senate from 1982 through 2001 before returning for a second term in the upper chamber in 2003, will not seek another six-year term.
"I will be traveling to my hometown of Paterson tomorrow to announce that I will not seek re-election in 2014. This is not the end of anything, but rather the beginning of a two-year mission to pass new gun safety laws, protect children from toxic chemicals, and create more opportunities for working families in New Jersey," Lautenberg said in a statement. "While I may not be seeking re-election, there is plenty of work to do before the end of this term and I'm going to keep fighting as hard as ever for the people of New Jersey in the U.S. Senate."
The decision clears the path for Newark Mayor Cory Booker to pursue the Democratic nomination for Senate. Booker, who's built a high national profile with his work as mayor, had provoked some public sniping from Lautenberg for seeming too quick to assume that the longtime senator would necessarily retire when his term is up in 2015.
Another Democrat thought to be eyeing the seat, Rep. Frank Pallone, effusively praised Lauternberg in a statement.
"I have peen proud to serve with Senator Lautenberg and even prouder to call him a friend," he said. "I look forward to continuing to work together in the coming months to continue to address the issues that are important to him and New Jersey. Like all New Jerseyans, I am grateful for his service to our state and our nation."
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Now go off and dirt nappy nap you liberal turd.
Dems Terrified Ashley Judd will run for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's Kentucky Senate seat and Ruin their Chances!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/ashley-judd-democrats_n_2686042.html?ref=topbar
“If she runs, I think that it would be a catastrophe for a lot of downballot races in Kentucky,” Jimmy Cauley, a Kentucky Democratic strategist, told Roll Call, adding that a number of state Democratic lawmakers had "significant worry about Ashley being on the ballot.”
In an interview with The Hill last month, Kentucky Democratic strategist Dale Emmons also poured cold water on the idea.
“There's some time for this to play out, but we don’t need to waste a lot of time on a fantasy. We need a real candidate,” he said.
Kentucky Dems don't want Obama acolyte Ashley Judd either.
He only thinks she's a "fantasy". Apparently he's never seen her without makeup. Oh, he means a "political fantasy". Oh well.
ANother corrupt NJ democrat. Good riddance
Frankly the existing United States Senate is about as inept a branch of government as ever existed in the history of this Republic. Anyone replacing anyone is better then the status quo. You have Republicans sitting on their hands doing nothing and Democrats certainly no better watching Harry Reid playing Sodoku while bills from the House just sit there.
They would be a laughing stock if it not for the fact that this country is sinking in the abyss.
It's really is ashame how this government is run top to bottom,Democrat and Republican,they should face a firing squad but they aren't worth a bullet.
The next revolution will fix this once & for all.
We could probably improve the Senate by dismissing this one, and picking them by throwing darts at different phone books from all fifty states to form the new one. Probably get a lower percentage of fools and louts (at least until they'd been up there for a while and got to be full of themselves and aware of how much that they can help their "friends", then we'd have to start over).
They never get too old to steal,Laudenberg came out of retirement when the other crook got caught.
Lautenberg is an even bigger crook.....just never got caught!!
He's right up there with Corzine as far as I am concerned - A cheat and a thief. He shouldn't have been there in the first place - he jumped into the last election in October because the Dem that was running got caught, so they tossed him aside and put this dimwit back.
Democrats (pelosi/reid/lautenburg/biden/hillary/schumer) the party of old white kooks
All the New Jersey Supreme Court had to do was to ignore the election law and let him run anyway. It's all right -- he was one of their own party. What's a little thing like an election law among friends?
Another Democrat who knows it's better to bow out than be thrown out!! The 2014 mid terms will be a blood bath for the Dems!! Look for Sen. Dick Durbin D. Illinois to do the "I will not seek re election, it's time to spend more time with the wife, grand kids, blah blah blah!!!!" That is if He's not in jail with Jesse Jackson Jr!!!
"Illinois leading the Nation in corruption"
The rats are the first ones off a sinking ship.
Booker is not that bad....does well for Newark. He wouldn't risk losing big by going against Chris Christie, though....
Now are politicians able to get Social Security ? or do the have to wait untill they are 95 ?
Nope, they have it just like everyone else. They pay in the same rate as other people with the same income, and draw the same. It's their lavish pensions and the fact that they have health coverage that most of the rest of us can only dream of (meaning that they suffer very little regardless of what happens with Medicare) the really inflame a lot of us.
Term limits are the only way to go! Our founding fathers, in my opinion, did not anticipate "career" politicians. What tears me out of the frame is that these politicians that are finally leaving office seem to always have someone hand picked to take his or her place in the House and Senate. It is the people that should decide who should be candidates for elected office. Another prime example was when Joe Biden "retired" from the Senate to become vice president and he tried his best to get his son to run in his place. It was as if the Bidens had some divine right to the office of senator from DE. Arrogance abound!
I think Senator Lautenberg made a wise decision and he is to be thanked for his long service to our nation.
you mean his long service to himself and to the other self-serving Democrat thieves of NJ?? Thank God Christie arrested most of the lying, cheating, stealing scum Democrats in state when he was District Attorney......Lautenberg just got away.....
and supporting the self-serving Republicans thieves is any better
Yeah, he "serviced" us alright!
Like the stud horse serviced the mares, you mean?
ADennis, Columbus, Ohio
2014 Senate seats:
Frank Lautenberg makes 4 retiring including Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) with 4 more still undecided, Dick Durbin (D-IL), Karl Levin (D-MI), Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Including those 8 a total of 35 seats will be voted on, 21 Democrats (60%), 14 Republicans (40%). Yet the odds of the Democrats retaining the Senate majority are better than even.
And if the republicans nominate another far right/tea party candidate, like Murdoch...etc...they can forget about getting this seat, espcially if Christie has any feedback on it..and does not support the radicals
What a crackpot. Just like most on this board.
We want more govt in our lives. We want more govt telling us what we can and can not do. We are to stupid to function without the govt. Goodness!
FLASH: NJ Senator Menendez (D) will be leaving office in 2013 and seeking public forgiveness!
LifeGuard, that was good.
One grifter out one grifter in that's how you do the White- Washington shuffle
An other white collar crook that has had his fill at the public trough. AMF
I think the people in New Jersy think it is alright for politicans too steal.
Thank God. Never did anything for the state. As crooked as they come. Only went back into office because his replacement was going to prison. They conveniently changed the rules so he could even though it was past the deadline. The only person more crooked is our other Senator Menendez. Retired State Trooper and so all the backdoor deals and theft.
Amen,how true,why can't other people see this?
Reading most of these comments on here and can clearly see why we in the sharpe we are in,God save our country because these people don't have a clue.
thank god!!! i have an all American work crew. being a former navy man i hire ex vets too. i bid on his crazy huge extra house that they use in the summer for the six or eight weeks, and thats if they even feel like going to that house. instead of giving the copper work to a American who only hires Americans, it was to our surprise that he hired a crew of all Mexican and foreign workers!!! i was going to send the pics in if he ran but i knew he would not run due to age and health issues. thank god. i thought our government was supposed to be for the people by the people. not really rich people who marry really rich people who make rules to help them each other, never mind giving a vet the job in the middle of the worst recession that they let there banker friends who live all over the Hampton's start. any way good rid-dens. not that another rich guy won't get his senate seat... simple question. when was the last time we had a middle class American in the senate??? someone who was part of that 95% of us who gets stepped on? i cant think of one either. perhaps its time to send some hero's there like that poor guy who shot bin laden and has not job or protection for his family... but i bet this old guy has a body guard. or what about the man who just got the Congressional medal of honor!! yea he is driving a truck. go figure.........
American :) who ever thought.....
Don't they have anybody but "career politicians" to put in office,......like an honest person ?
It's our fault that they become "career politicians". If all of us simply refused to continue to vote for the same old pols, it would end!
Please leave now. NJ the hell hole of the east coast,thanks to this jerk off scum bag.
He should retire...airline pilots have to retire at 65....congress should-not be eligible when they reach 65...just look at all these old coots...they probably don't even know where they are or what they are supposed to be doing..they should not be allowed to die on the job....
He should not have come back in the first place. He has been a bane to freedom loving residents since he first got in. I could never understand what his axe to grind with gun owners was from. Fienstein, McCarthy, and now Giffords, I can understand. Him? No idea why he would turn normal people into criminals by simple pen strokes. He will not be missed.
Psst, Senator, everyone in their right mind are fleeing N.J. at this time, plus it is safe for all you idiots to retire, since your job is done destroying America, please go find a green pasture and retire quietly. We can only hope you are followed by Pelosi, Reid, Boxer and Feinstein.
If we are lucky a few of these old goats will retire and get some people who understand you can not spend more than you take in. Oh thats right lets just tax the rich as they can afford it when what you really mean is I do not want to pay anymore so just make sure the income you tax is above mine