Sen. Patrick Leahy, 81, is retiring after eighth term
MONTPELIER, VT. >> Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Monday he won’t seek reelection next year to the seat he’s held since 1975, signaling an end to a career that’s included major roles on issues such as civil liberties and financing the government and that began before four of his current colleagues were born.
“It’s time to come home,” said Leahy, 81. He made the announcement in the Vermont State House, blocks from where he grew up.
The decision by Leahy, among the Senate’s more liberal members, marks the end of a political era. He’s the last of the so-called Watergate babies, the surge of congressional Democrats elected in 1974 after President Richard Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment.
He’s also among a dwindling group from a more collegial era when senators had more harmonious relationships despite ideological differences. Among those is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., now one of Congress’ sharpest partisans, who’s served alongside Leahy for over three decades and praised him warmly as “an all-time Senate institution.”
Leahy became the first Democrat facing reelection next year in the 50-50 Senate to say he’ll retire. His state has shifted from solidly Republican to deep blue while he’s been senator, and his seat seems securely in Democratic hands.
He chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, which injects him into this fall’s budget fight. He was chair or top Democrat on the Judiciary committee for two decades and was atop the Agriculture panel for 10 years. But inside the Capitol, he’s equally known as a photography buff who wanders the corridors with a camera slung around his neck and for shepherding around celebrities including members of his beloved Grateful Dead.
Leahy is the longest-serving sitting senator, and by the time his term expires in January 2023, he’ll have served for 48 years, the third-longest tenure ever. He’s the fifth-oldest current senator, among six 80-somethings in the chamber who include his Vermont colleague Bernie Sanders, 80.