WASHINGTON — After receiving threatening late-night calls at home and having the term “baby killer” hurled at him on the House floor, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., on Friday became perhaps the most prominent casualty of the health care debate, announcing that he will retire from Congress.
His decision to retire, after becoming a target of both sides in the abortion debate, added to the problems of Democrats fighting to hold on to their majority in the November midterm elections.
Stupak’s northern Michigan district was immediately moved into the toss-up category by political handicappers. “Expect a free for all,” Charlie Cook wrote on the Web site of his nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Conservative groups claimed credit for forcing the 18-year House veteran’s retirement.
Stupak’s retirement “shows the power of the tea party movement,” said Bryan Shroyer, political director for Tea Party Express, which was in Stupak’s district organizing rallies to defeat him.
The House GOP’s campaign committee issued a fundraising appeal declaring Stupak “the first political casualty of ObamaCare.”
But Stupak, the anti-abortion Democrat whose last-minute support helped cinch House passage of the health care overhaul, said he was worn out by the long hours of travel between Washington and his sprawling district in northern Michigan.
“I’m young enough. I’m at the crossroads in my life, where I can do other things. I look forward to those new challenges,” Stupak, 58, said. With his wife, Laurie, at his side, he said: “It’s time for me to make the break. It’s time for me to move on.”
He denied that threatening “3-o’clock-in-the-morning phone calls” to his home were much of a factor, saying, “That’s people outside my district.”
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