Rodney Tom Won't Seek Reelection This Year

Rumors started racing across the Olympia-minded Twittersphere a few moments ago that state senator Rodney Tom will not seek reelection this year. And it appears to be confirmed already. Josh Feit at PubliCola has the full e-mail Tom sent to his colleagues.

An excerpt:

I wanted to let you know I will not be running for re-election to the state senate this year. A sequence of events just make this the right decision for me. I'm still working through some health issue related to my kidney stones adventure that I had at the end of session. The final straw was on this past Thursday, my 85 year old father was hit by a car while walking in the grocery store parking lot (in a crosswalk with his cane). It broke his femur, as well as damaging his hip. He's going to require a lot of physical therapy over the next several months, and I'm his only son that lives in the area. I have always said that health and family are my number one values, and instead of that being merely a campaign slogan, I really do try to live by them.

That sounds awful. Obviously, this has enormous political implications for the state, which we will get into later, but for now, best wishes for a speedy recovery to Tom's father.