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Dreier, the chairman of the House Rules committee, is another congressional veteran to see his career altered, and possibly ended, by redistricting. The San Dimas Republican was moved into a majority-Latino district east of Los Angeles that went for President Obama in 2008. Elected in the 1980 Ronald Reagan landslide, Dreier heads the California Republican delegation in Congress. He announced his decision not to run this morning on the House floor. His statement begins:
Mr. Speaker, I have chosen to leave Congress at the end of this term. I take the unusual step of announcing this from the floor of Congress for two reasons. First, this is where my fellow Californians sent me to represent them. Second, I am a proud institutionalist, and I believe that this institution is as great as it has ever been.My decision has been a deliberative one. Three years ago I contemplated leaving at the end of the previous Congress, but I ultimately chose to seek reelection for the sake of pursuing four key objectives: (1) to reverse the very dangerous 82% increase in non-defense discretionary spending that we had in the previous two Congresses; (2) to finally pass the job-creating free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea; (3) to enhance our national security by working to strengthen the legislatures of new and reemerging democracies across the globe through the bipartisan House Democracy Partnership; and (4) to ensure, through the Rules Committee, that both Democrats and Republicans have the opportunity to offer their solutions by proposing amendments on the House floor....
