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By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Rep. Lynn Woolsey made it official Monday at her Petaluma home, announcing that she will retire next year after completing two decades as the North Bay’s representative in Congress.
“It’s been a privilege to serve you, to work with you, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Woolsey, 73, told about 200 supporters gathered in the backyard of her Petaluma home.
When her current term, her 10th, expires at the end of 2012, “It will be time for me to move on,” she said.
Woolsey identified several accomplishments in her district, including twice saving the Two Rock Coast Guard base from closure, establishing a school breakfast pilot program that included Santa Rosa and getting the former Skaggs Island naval facility converted to a national wildlife refuge.
The Democrat and former Petaluma city councilwoman was elected to Congress in 1992, the “year of the woman” in American politics. A former welfare mother who founded her own personnel agency in Petaluma, she became known for her early opposition to the Iraq war and continued opposition to the conflict in Afghanistan.
“Nothing has animated me more than opposition to the wars our country has been fighting for the last 10 years,” she said, calling them a “moral blight on this nation.”
Last week she faulted President Obama’s Afghanistan troop withdrawal plan as too small and too slow, calling it “a profound disappointment.”
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, introduced Woolsey — whom she referred to as “my girlfriend” — to the crowd.
“You know she is a warrior for peace and justice,” said Lee, who co-chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus with Woolsey.
Woolsey, who has four grown children and five grandchildren, said that family figured in her decision to retire.
“I want to be home more,” she told reporters. “I want to get off those airplanes.”
But Woolsey, saying she is “100 percent” healthy, will continue to be active as a member of Americans for Democratic Action, an independent liberal lobbying organization founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, economist John Kenneth Galbraith and others.
“It will be hard to slow down,” said Woolsey, who is president of the organization. “I’ve got more energy than the average bear.”
In terms of unfinished business, Woolsey said she would most like to see passage of her bill expanding two marine sanctuaries, adding the coast from Bodega Head north to Point Arena to an area off-limits to offshore oil development.
Conservatives in her district, which covers Marin and most of Sonoma County, have chafed at Woolsey’s liberal politics. But in a district in which Democrats hold a more than 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans, Woolsey easily rolled to re-election nine times.
Challenged last year by Republican Jim Judd, a Rohnert Park businessman, Woolsey won her 10th term with 66 percent of the vote. The job currently pays $174,000 a year.
A few weeks before the 2010 election, Woolsey said she had no plans to retire. “I’ve got the health, the energy and the desire,” she said at the time.
But in December, Woolsey said she was considering retirement, noting that she will be 75 and will have served 20 years on the Hill by the end of her current term. Woolsey said then that she would make her decision in June.
Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Marin activist Norman Solomon subsequently announced plans to run for the seat if Woolsey retired. Both have raised more than $100,000 for a campaign they acknowledged could cost more than $1 million.
Susan Adams, a Marin County supervisor, also has formed a campaign committee and said she is “exploring the opportunity.” Adams said Monday she would make a decision “pretty shortly.” All three potential candidates attended Woolsey’s announcement, along with numerous local politicians.
Woolsey said she will make no endorsement in the upcoming race to fill her seat.
Petaluma Mayor David Glass said Woolsey “has been a leader on so much for this district,” including the Petaluma River flood control project.
“I was hoping she would say she is going to stay another two years,” Glass said.
Lynn Hamilton, a former Sebastopol mayor, said Woolsey stuck to her principles and supported “just about every progressive issue you could think of.”
“I am just so proud of her,” Hamilton said. “I just love her.”
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Rep. Lynn Woolsey announces her retirement at her Petaluma home on Monday. CHRISTOPHER CHUNG/PD
Click here to view more photos from Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s retirement announcement
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Now that she’s done stinking up the political stage,
She could follow Tom Delay’s example,and shoot for a slot on Dancing with the Stars.
How about Woolsey on the SMART board? It seems doomed to fail. She would fit right in! Heck, she can even get herself another pension!
is someone or AGENCY that would hire a Woolsey Clone to lead them in to the future….of Sopranos like rackateering, hate for America, the middle class, white folks, christians, and any responsible party whatsoever, we won’t mention SCWA!
Amen sister. Glad she is finally out of here. NOW let’s get a real legislator in office that can make some changes!!
Mockingbird —
You’re about the fifth Progressive who has invited me to leave this county if I don’t like its politics.
How does that make you any different than the narrow-minded right wing bigots of the 60s who used to say “America, Love It or Leave It” to anyone remotely liberal?
Frodo —
If you want to know where the anti-Woolsey comments come from, they come from a very small portion of the 65,000 6th District citizens who voted for an unknown, but decent candidate with an R after his name. In this largely blue district, that’s a lot of no-confidence votes for your favorite socialist.
I’d like to hear the details from the progressives about exactly what she accomplished in her 20 years. What’s the point of electing and re-electing someone who has been clearly ineffectual and then professing that you’ll try and vote in another progressive just like her when she’s gone?
I somehow doubt Sonoma County can afford to be so progressive and will elect some kind of moderate-conservative if such a candidate is available.
Why do the same things over and over and expect any different results. So she stood up against the war. Why didn’t the war get ended when the democrats controlled the white house and the Congress for two full years? Why didn’t the budget get passed in that period either? Why didn’t the debt ceiling get lifted when they were in control?
When her top accomplishment is keeping Two Rock open, you have to wonder. What is so essential out there anyway? Hasn’t it just been reduced to a school for Coast Guard cooks?
Instead of a school lunch program, why can’t parents just make their kids a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple for less than 50 cents instead of forcing the taxpayer to pay probably $10-$20 a head to buy school lunches? That’s no accomplishment. How many nanny state programs do we need really? Is that what we elected her to do?
Skaags Island wildlife refuge? Glad you’re taking care of whatever animals might be hiding there. What about the people in your district? I don’t object to creating refuges, but are any of these things worth 20 years of effort?
And all those anti-war speeches in front of a completely empty house chamber. He entire tenure was pointless.
But all the Sonoma County progressives agree with her politics, so it doesn’t matter that she didn’t do or accomplish a damn thing? No wonder our country is going down the tubes.
@ Frodo
What “effectiveness”?
Please…share with the group.
If I were retiring after almost 20 years in congress, I think I’d ask myself a few questions, such as:
“Was I civil and open to constituents with ideas and beliefs different from mine, and did I treat them respectfully, attempting to respond to their concerns or did I demonize and vilify them in tweets, speeches and print every chance I got?”
“Did I advance the cause of liberty, freedom, individual and property rights for all or did I cater to special interests in order to get reelected?”
“Did I uphold the constitution as I took an oath to do?”
“Did I try to remain honest or did I say whatever was politically expedient?”
“Did I assure my constituents in April 2010 that we had turned the corner on unemployment, that “green” jobs would save us and things were looking up only to be proven very wrong, yet never admit it, apologize or try a different approach (such as decreasing taxes and regulations) to encourage private sector job growth?”
“Did I claim that Medicare would cover far more people with more services for all once “healthcare reform” was passed and simultaneously claim Medicare can be cut 575 billion without negative consequences? Did I knowingly go along with phony accounting or double counting to further this claim?”
“Did I deny that Medicare was in serious financial trouble in order to further my goal to see a public option that mimics Medicare?”
“Did I duck hard questions, especially about keeping my gold standard healthcare while trying to make my constituents take a sub standard government run plan?”
“Did I cover up or enable things that I knew were wrong? Did I have a hidden agenda?”
“Did I twist or misrepresent statements or facts in order to gain support, cause disruption and chaos or intimidate people that questioned or criticized me?”
“Did I vote for raises for myself when my constituents were suffering record numbers of home and job losses without thinking twice- then try to defend it by saying I need two of everything?”
“Did I present useful ideas and contribute to problem solving, or did I just rant against our military and the other political party and people year after year?”
“What did I mean when I said that corporations are not people? Isn’t the class warfare divisive, not peace promoting?”
“Are the majority of my constituents better off than when I began or are they worse off and why?”
If I did not attempt to represent ALL of my constituents in an honest, fair and honorable way, I would consider my time in office a disgraceful waste and a failure, yet there would still be a sweet lobbying job to further enrich me in spite of it all!
My man Demosthenes got it right; why y’all gotta be hatin’?
Woolsey this and Woolsey that…
Your mad views got me contemplatin’
Just scroll down and read some of the things you’ve said
Some of you got real problems,
Some of you just sick in the head
Lil’ Woolsey may not have represented you,
Maybe she never did as you do
But then again, what do you do?
Who cares.
You aint done nothin’ that matters to me
And your opinions sure as @#$% don’t match the rest of the constituency
Your little views and your little voice
Don’t actually reflect
The voter’s choice
Twenty years she been getting re-elected
Like her or not,
Your views been rejected
It’s called democracy, son
We had elections-guess what,
Woolsey always won
Not her fault you too thick too see
It aint about you,
And It aint about me
If you think you can do a better job—like to see you try
Get out from behind this forum,
This Reality Check won’t lie
You wanna know the total vote’s you’d get?
Count the number of thumbs down
Cuz’ that’s about it.
Wishin’ you Better Dayz, lil’ Woolsy,
FRODO- I agree with you. Most of the posts don’t reflect the politics of this region. It’s like they’re members of some rightwing club (probably teapartiers) who come on this post and bash everything remotely progressive and forward thinking.
If they’re unhappy in this wonderfully progressive county they should move to Southern CA where they’ll feel right at home.
As for Woolsey, I’m sorry to see her go. You can bet I’ll be working for the next progressive candidates running in this area. Of course, if the redistricting pans out, with Santa Rosa being aligned with parts east instead of the coastal region (stupid idea, I tell you), I’m not sure who that will be as yet.
I have to wonder where all the right-wing wingnuts who commented on this article came from – they certainly don’t reflect the views of the large percentage of voters who put Rep. Woolsey into office again and again and again. This is mostly mour grapes about her effectiveness in Congress, I’d assume.
Thank you, Rep. Woolsey, for all your hard work and many accomplishments. I for one am very sad to be losing your excellent representation and hope you enjoy your well-earned retirement.
@Jerry
I’m dying to hear the rest of the story!
Do tell!
As Woolsey rides out of town with a large federal pension in her pocket, maybe she will put in a good word about retirement to Boxer and Feinstein.
This little group of senior citizens well over 70 years of age have done enough damage to our state and nation to make them happy for years to come.
These fossils all need to disappear into the obscurity they so richly earned. California needs a new group in Congress who will begin to turn our state around ending this social experiment which has been a disaster for the economy, employment and our society.
I knew Lynn many years ago wshen she and her husband worked at Tegal. Don’t you want to know how she became a welfare mother?
Put it another way…she is the last one talking about morality.
She retired? How could you tell?
The bravest thing she ever did was give SOTU speech tickets to screeching Code Pinko psychos(during GWB’s address)and then lie about it.
Her courage is as great as our other Founders, like Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho and Mumia.
Incoherent, intolerant, dishonest and traitorous.
That’s how we’ll remember Lynn.
Woolsey working for reform? The only reform she ever voted for was to reform my wallet into something smaller.
If Woolsey would have been President Joseph, we would be the United States of Greece.
Looking toward the future, wouldn’t it be a great change to elect someone with both common and financial sense who understands that the government needs to get out of the way for the economy to recover, and that all short-term government solutions fail, such as homebuyer tax credits or the so-called stimulus plan (which reportedly saved or created mainly government jobs at a cost of $266,000 per job, and actually deterred private companies from hiring 1 million people).
Sonoma County once was represented in Congress by moderate, John Kennedy-type Democrats and fiscally responsible Republicans. Has the county lost its way so badly that only a far-left wingnut can be elected here today?
Sad.
I have seen Lynn Woolsey’s career here from the beginning. For those of you who claim she represented you, fine, but she did not represent all the people here very well. Sure, if you are someone who moved here from elsewhere, turning this once sane enclave in to the progressive insanity it has become, she represented you.
As for the sane among us, those who understand economics, service, true conservation and sacrifice, we were not represented. In fact, the scars will take a long time to heal, for you most progressive among you have forgotten how to compromise and preserve prosperity, in favor of your cause of the day.
There is more to being a good citizen then Lynn or any of her followers seem to grasp. That is why her and her type always relentlessly and vehemently attack those who do not agree with their progressive point of view.
I for one, believe that no Representative should serve ten terms in the House of Representatives. That is not what I would call a diversity of representation. So, good riddance to this old barnacle stuck to the hull of freedom.
Like her or not, Lynn Woolsey is one of the bravest people in Congress on either side of the aisle. It takes guts to act like she did, often against the grain. If you like Ron Paul or the Tea Party, you have to respect Lynn Woolsey as a fellow worker for reform.
Another way to put this is that if Lynn Woolsey had been president, we wouldn’t have had the bankrupting wars, nor the tax cuts on the rich that have given us this recession.
This is some of the best news i’ve heard in a long time. I’m ready to get that dinosaur out of here!
You faithfully represented California’s Sixth District for 20 years. Thank you for all your hard work and have a great retirement, Lynn.
I just hope whoever replaces Lynn considers this credo before they pay back their special interest groups–”The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”
Hooray! This is temporarily good news for Sonoma County and people with critical thinking skills.
At least until the guilt-ridden, white, liberal loonie tunes around here vote in another self-serving idiot. There seems to be an endless supply of them ready to run for office and mooch off the taxpayers,
One Marxist down, many to go in the North Bay.
This despicable excuse for a human being spent her political career creating a vast wasteland of people dependant on GOVERNMENT. Now that GOVERNMENT can no longer support these people she’s bailing on them & taking her fat pension with her!
“I got mine, now fend for yourself”!
Good riddance!
All politics aside, the woman gave twenty years of her life serving the public in the best way she knew how and for that, I thank her.
Haters gonna hate, as they say, but I for one am incredibly happy for Lynn and wish her nothing but the best.
You have represented me, personally, very well and I thank you for that.
THERE IS A GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish Rep. Woolsey a good, long, happy retirement from elected office.
Jared Huffman and Norman Solomon are not potential successors I would support. However, the district in which they run may not be my district — happy days.
Thank God.
out with the old and in with the OMG not another one
I turned 18 the year Lynn Woolsey ran for Congress. She was elected in the first election I was eligible to vote in.
Congresswoman Woolsey thank you for all the years of service, you have been a dedicated leader for our district.
You will be missed.
Stories like this make me wish Soupy Sales were still alive. If he relocated here, he would be the sanest contender for the job.