Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California announced Monday that she will not seek an eleventh term in Congress next year.
Woolsey, 73, was one of 133 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted against authorization of the Iraq War in 2002. She has also been a consistent critic of the conflict in Afghanistan.
A former Petaluma city councilwoman, she was first elected to Congress in 1992 when she won a crowded primary in the North Bay area’s heavily Democratic sixth congressional district for the seat vacated by Barbara Boxer, who was elected to the U.S. Senate that year.
Woolsey, who as a single mother was forced to turn to welfare to raise her children when her ex-husband refused to pay child support, had founded a successful employment agency in her hometown of Petaluma before entering politics.
In 2006, Woolsey gave antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan a guest pass to attend the State of the Union address. In a widely-publicized event, Sheehan was removed from the gallery for wearing a shirt containing a political message.
“I will turn 75 years old just before the next Election Day, and after two decades of service to this district, it will be time for me to move on,” said Woolsey in announcing her retirement from her home in Petaluma.
One of the House’s most visible and vocal leaders on progressive issues, Woolsey said she plans to remain active as a member of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), the nation’s oldest liberal lobbying organization founded in 1947 by Eleanor Roosevelt, Hubert Humphrey, economist John Kenneth Galbraith and historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Woolsey currently serves as the organization’s president.
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