WASHINGTON — Rep. David Obey, a leading liberal Democrat but a symbol of entrenched incumbency that’s falling out of favor with discontented voters, said Wednesday that he won’t run for re-election this year.
The decision by the often-gruff House veteran of four decades and powerful Appropriations Committee chairman dealt Democrats defending their majority another blow headed into a midterm election where they already confronted a significant loss of seats.
Obey, at 71 the third longest-serving current member of the House, faced a potentially bruising re-election campaign this fall for the northwestern Wisconsin seat he has held since winning a special election in 1969.
At a hastily called Capitol Hill news conference, Obey told reporters he was confident he could have won another term, but that with the passage of landmark health care legislation this year, he felt he accomplished much of what he had set out to do in Washington.
“There is a time to stay and a time to go. And this is my time to go,” Obey said. “I think, frankly, that my district is ready for someone new to make a fresh start.”
Obey has routinely won re-election easily despite representing a competitive district. He won in 2008 with 61 percent of the vote.
This year’s race would have been far more challenging; Obey’s decision came after Democratic polling showed he was vulnerable.
