Citing Illness, Lantos Announces Retirement

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, will be retiring at the end of his term after receiving a recent diagnosis that he has cancer of the esophagus.

“Routine medical tests have revealed that I have cancer of the esophagus. In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek reelection,” Lantos said in a statement.

Lantos, 79, is the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, and has made his name as a foreign policy expert in the House.

He has been a leading voice for international human rights in Congress, was an early advocate of providing aid to post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe and has criticized China for human rights abuses. He has also sponsored legislation prohibiting countries that violate human rights from allowing to serve on the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) would be in line to succeed Lantos in the next Congress as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Lantos was fully expected to run for reelection, even recently sending out franked mail to his constituents touting his accomplishments in Congress. He was facing the prospect of a competitive Democratic primary against former state Sen. Jackie Speier, who was preparing to run against him from the left.

Speier would appear to be a front-runner now for the seat in a heavily Democratic Bay Area district, though Lantos' retirement would appear to open up the floodgates of other Democratic aspirants to enter the race.

The district is one of the most Democratic in the state, giving President Bush only 27 percent of the vote in 2004.