Sen. Max Baucus Won’t Run For Re-election

U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D – Mont.) has reportedly decided against seeking re-election and will retire from office rather than run for a seventh term in 2014.

Sen. Baucus, the Finance Committee chair, recently referred to Obamacare in a public hearing on Capitol Hill as a “huge train wreck coming down,” even though he voted for it. This month, Baucus voted against the Manchin-Toomey expanded gun background checks bill which angered many in his own party. “The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a prominent liberal advocacy group, bought a series of newspaper ads in Montana over the weekend attacking Baucus for his gun vote.”

In December 2009, Baucus tried unsuccessfully to get his girlfriend appointed as the top federal prosecutor in Montana. That same month, he appeared to be drunk while giving a speech in the Senate in favor of healthcare reform.

Baucus has chaired the influential Finance Committee since 2001. “The Baucus retirement also could have dramatic policy ramifications. No longer bounded by his own 2014 re-election, Baucus can now push for comprehensive tax reform without concerns about the political ramifications, his allies say.” Baucus is Montana’s longest-serving US Senator.

In office since 1978, the senator — considered politically vulnerable on both sides of the aisle — was facing a tough re-election campaign in Montana, a state that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney won decisively in the 2012 presidential election. “The longtime senator has a reputation as a dealmaker, and also as a politician willing to frequently vote against his party. He is sometimes referred to as ‘Max Baucus, one-man caucus’ and has long been a punching bag for liberals, who were outraged when he supported President Bush’s tax cuts in 2001.

Former governor Brian Schweitzer is considered the front-runner for the seat among the Democrats. There likely will be no shortage of Republicans interested in tossing their hats in the ring as well.

Prior to his election to the Senate, Baucus served in the US House of Representatives from 1978 to 1978. With the Baucus retirement announcement, there are now five Democrat incumbents who have declined to seek another term in the Senate.