Rep. Diane Watson to announce retirement today

[KingFlorez]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/02/rep-diane-watson-to-announce-retirement-today/1

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., plans to announce her retirement this morning, according to the Los Angeles Times and others. The Times, citing a congressional source, says that the 76-year-old Democrat "was tiring of the cross-country trips and wanted to spend time with her mother, who recently turned 100."

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., shown here talking to students at the renovated Mary McCleod Bethune Accelerated School in New Orleans in 2007, will announce today that she will not seek reelection. She is 76 years old.
CAPTION
By Dave Martin, AP

Watson was the first African American to be elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education in 1975, according to her biography. She also served in the state Senate and was appointed by then-President Clinton in 1999 to serve as ambassador to Micronesia. She went to Congress in 2001 after winning a special election to complete the term of the late Rep. Julian Dixon.

Her expected retirement announcement will come a day after Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Mich., announced he would not seek a ninth term, as we reported yesterday.

The number of retirements now stands at 17 for Republicans and 13 for Democrats. The "casualty list" can be found here on the House Press Gallery website.

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This is a safe seat, it's D+35 and voted 86% for Obama. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is expected to run for the seat.

[joeybee12]

1. Wow, her Mom's 100...good luck to them both...n/t

[vegiegals]

2. The number of retirements now stands at 17 for Republicans and 13 for Democrats.

The number of retirements now stands at 17 for Republicans and 13 for Democrats. The "casualty list" can be found here on the House Press Gallery website.