William Petroski

bpetrosk@dmreg.com

State Sen. Hubert Houser left the Iowa Statehouse a month ago, and he doesn't want to come back.

Houser, 71, a farmer from Carson in southwest Iowa, says his health is fine. He isn't angry at Democrats or his fellow Republicans, either.

It's just that after 42 years of public service, including the past 22 years in the House and Senate, he's had enough. In addition, as a minority Senate caucus member, Houser says his vote isn't needed to pass any legislation, and he isn't playing any significant role in writing any bills this session.

Houser told The Des Moines Register he will return to the Statehouse for a day or two to help Senate Republicans as the 2014 session winds up. But otherwise, his legislative career is finished, although Secretary of the Senate Michael Marshall confirmed last week that Houser is still a state senator and remains on the state payroll. Houser is not running for re-election this fall.

"I am more than ready to move on. Not only am I retiring from the Legislature and politics, I have no intention of trying to run for anything else," Houser said in a phone interview Friday. He added, "I need to be here with my farm business more. The timing wasn't the best, but you cannot always control that."

The Senate Journal shows that Houser has not cast a vote on the Senate floor since March 4, when he voted for House File 2297, a bill relating to the regulation of pharmacy benefits managers. The bill passed 49-0. The only lawmaker who missed that vote was Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, who has often been absent this session while campaigning for the U.S. Senate or while on military duty.

Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, said last week that he didn't know how long Houser had been absent from the Senate. But he added that Houser has remained in contact with the Senate GOP caucus while "dealing with a number of issues" at home.

Dix said Houser is still working to represent his constituents, explaining, "We expect him to continue to do so."

Leaving the Legislature for one reason or another after being elected to a term isn't that unusual. For example, former state Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, resigned last year after questions arose in an ethics investigation, and former state Sen. Swati Dandekar, D-Marion, resigned in 2011 to accept an appointment to the Iowa Utilities Board. But it's not typical for a lawmaker to walk out during a session without resigning.

Houser said Friday that he had talked with Dix earlier in the day, but he told a reporter later that he was focused primarily on work at his farm. "It is a family farm operation. We have row crops and livestock, and we are starting another farm business project. That is what is really taking my time. We are building some livestock facilities. We have the dirt work done and the grading work done and will start construction the 14th of April. There are a lot of things to deal with that."

Houser began his career in public service on the Carson-Macedonia school board and spent 14 years on the Pottwattamie County Board of Supervisors before he was elected to the House in 1992 and the Senate in 2002. He is currently the ranking Republican on the Senate Labor and Business Relations Committee and also serves on the Senate Economic Growth and Senate Agriculture Committee.

Houser said that when this year's session began, everybody told him it would be short, so he took on some commitments at the family farm. And since it was his last session, he asked for and got a light workload.

As the session wore on and legislative deadlines passed, the few standing committees on which he served didn't have much to do, he said. In addition, he wasn't serving on committees that write tax laws or appropriate state spending, which are often busy later in the session.

"So actually, I had nothing to do except cast a few votes," he said. In addition, his role was diminished even more as a minority Republican because majority Democrats don't bring bills to the floor unless they already have enough votes to win approval, he noted.

As a result, Houser decided to go home instead of sticking around the Statehouse. He said that if it makes people feel better, he is willing to try to return briefly to cast some votes. But it's clearly not something he thinks is urgently needed.

"I am just an old man wanting to leave the place, quietly and peacefully, and get on with the rest of my life," he said.