On Monday, Maryland Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski announced that she planned to retire rather than seek re-election in 2016. Mikulski made the announcement at a waterfront hotel in the Fell’s Point neighborhood of Baltimore, near where her parents once ran a corner grocery store. Mikulski first won political office in 1971, winning a seat on the Baltimore City Council.
She was first elected to the U.S. House in 1976 and entered the U.S. Senate after winning election to that body in 1986. She is the longest serving woman ever to hold office in the U.S. Congress. In her ten victorious Congressional races (House and Senate), she never received less than 60 percent of the vote. Before winning her first House race, Mikulski did lose to Republican Charles Mathias in a 1974 Senate race. It is the only election she has ever lost.
Mikulski has been a liberal fighter throughout her House and Senate career. Her colleagues have described her as “prickly”. Congressional staffers have voted her “the meanest” Senator. However, her abrasiveness merely underscores her passion for fighting on behalf of ordinary Americans, against powerful interests. Her constituents see her as a tireless, if not always polite, advocate for the “little guy”. The Baltimore Sun perhaps best captured the mystique of Senator Mikulski in a 2004 endorsement of her:
She’s still got a bark like a vicious terrier – as she demonstrated during a televised debate this week. But she’s our terrier…Over the years she’s delivered, big time.
Mikulski was one of just 11 Senators to vote against both President Bush’s Iraq Wars. She voted no to the 1991 resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, under President George H.W. Bush. She also voted against the 2002 Iraq War resolution, under then-President George W. Bush.
In 2014, she introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act in the U.S. Senate. The bill would have punished employers for retaliating against workers who share wage information. It also would have allowed workers to sue for punitive damages for wage discrimination. Senate Republicans blocked the measure.
The Maryland Senator isn’t going anywhere yet, however. Even in her retirement announcement she adopted a fighter’s stance, explaining her decision, with characteristic bluntness:
I had to decide whether to spend my time fighting to keep my job or fighting for your job. Do I spend my time raising money or raising hell to meet your day-to-day needs? Do I spend my time focusing on my election or the next generation?
Democrats in Maryland will begin the scramble to replace a voice who has served them well for over three decades. While her shoes will be nearly impossible to fill, the state has a decent Democratic bench that includes Congressional Representatives John Sarbanes, Donna Edwards, John Delaney, Elijah Cummings, and Chris Van Hollen as well as ex-Governor Martin O’Malley. Edwards and Cummings are the most likely to follow in Mikulski’s footsteps of fiery temperament and progressive passion. However, regardless of who Maryland elects as their next Senator, Barbara Mikulski leaves behind a long legacy of achievements. She will be missed.
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