Matheson faced a tough reelection in 2012, and Wolf is in an increasingly blue district. | AP Photos 3 reps won't run again, shaking 2014

In a surprising day of congressional retirements, three House members announced separately on Tuesday that they would not seek reelection in 2014 — putting each of their seats in play for their rival parties.

The most significant departure came in Utah, where Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson said he would be vacating a conservative seat, almost certainly handing it to Republicans in next year’s midterms. But Democrats got good news in Iowa, where GOP Rep. Tom Latham declared that he would be retiring from the swing district he’s held for 10 terms, and in Virginia, where another veteran congressman, GOP Rep. Frank Wolf, announced that he wouldn’t be running for reelection in an up-for-grabs district.


The announcements marked three of the highest profile congressional retirements ahead of next year’s midterms, when Democrats will try to erase the 17-seat deficit they face in the House. It came at the onset of the congressional holiday recess, when lawmakers are home with their families and considering their future plans, and just weeks before the start of the election year.

Matheson’s departure marked a tremendous blow for national Democrats, who have little chance of defending the seat. Matheson, the son of a former governor and a savvy pol who cut a conservative profile, was one of the most imperiled Democratic incumbents in the nation, occupying a ruby red central Utah district that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won in 2012 with 68 percent of the vote. He is one of the last members of the House Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative Democrats whose ranks have dwindled during Barack Obama’s presidency.

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“Today, I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the House of Representatives,” Matheson, a seven-term congressman, wrote on his Facebook page. “I was raised to value the honor in public service and the responsibility of holding the public trust. My time in Congress has only strengthened these beliefs.”

In 2012, Matheson survived the hardest reelection fight of his career, beating back Republican Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love by less than 800 votes. Republicans were gunning for the 53-year-old incumbent again, with Love – a high-profile candidate who was a favorite of national Republicans — returning for a rematch with a revamped campaign team.

Matheson voted against Obamacare, but Republicans argued that his retirement was evidence of the political cost the president’s health care law has had for Democrats in general.

In a statement, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden called the retirement “a warning signal to Democrats coast to coast. Not only will this announcement allow Republicans to focus our energy and resources on defeating other vulnerable Democrats, but it also proves that Obamacare has become a total nightmare for any Democrat running in 2014.”

Latham, a senior Appropriations Committee member, is vacating a district in which Obama received 51 percent of the vote. In 2012, he knocked off Democratic Rep. Leonard Boswell in a post-redistricting member-vs.-member match-up. In a Tuesday evening message to supporters, the 65-year-old Latham wrote: “It is never a perfect time or a right time to step aside. But for me, this is the time. I want to share with you my decision that I will not be a candidate for any office in November of 2014.”

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In Latham’s southwest Iowa district, national Democrats have recruited a candidate in Staci Appel, a former state senator and businesswoman.

Wolf’s decision to leave his Northern Virginia seat brings an end to a 17-term congressional career in a state that has been increasingly trending Democratic. Romney only narrowly won the 10th District seat in 2012, while President Barack Obama won it in 2008. Last week, Democrat John Foust, a Fairfax County supervisor and attorney, announced that he was launching a campaign for the seat now being vacated by Wolf.

Wolf, 74 and another Appropriations Committee cardinal, had managed to lock down his Northern Virginia district despite its moderate tilt, typically skating to easy reelection wins over marginal opposition. Among possible Republican candidates for the seat are state Sen. Jill Vogel and state delegates Barbara Comstock and Tim Hugo.

Kelly Ward, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee executive director, said in a statement: “Looking ahead to 2014, Virginia Republicans’ track record of nominating the most extreme candidate means they won’t find a centrist to fill Frank Wolf’s shoes in this toss-up district, but they will choose a candidate who will look at lot like the radicals in this Republican Congress.”