Liberal Democratic Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) won't seek re-election in 2012, the Congressman said Monday.
Frank said that last year he decided to make this his last term after a busy and somewhat stressful four years with the financial crisis and "precipitated" by redistricting. He said the need to campaign in a district that is almost half new (326,000 people) would take too much time from his legislative obligations. He had always planned to retire at the end of the next session regardless, he said.
Frank once tried to legislate limits on cable rates, and voted for network neutrality legislation and against allowing phone companies to provide Internet access service back in 2002, according to his voting record.
He was also co-sponsor of a resolution of disapproval in 2008 to overturn then-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's loosening of the newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule. But Frank voted against raising fines for indecency and supported delaying the DTV transition by a few months back in 2009.
His retirement will come after 16 terms (32 years) in Congress.
