Vermont's Independent Senator Jeffords bows out

By Shay Totten | Vermont Guardian

Posted April 20, 2005

BURLINGTON — Despite endless proclamations to the contrary, U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords Wednesday made the announcement that Vermonters had been anticipating for months: He will not seek re-election in 2006.

Jeffords issued a brief electoral swan song at a Burlington hotel in a room crowded with media, current and former staffers, as well as curious political watchers and friends.

“I have had an enormously satisfying career, one that I could not have traded for any other,” said Jeffords. “There have been questions about my health, and that is a factor as well. I am feeling the aches and pains that come when you reach 70. My memory fails me on occasion, but Liz would probably argue that this has been going on for the last 50 years.

Liz, Jeffords wife, has been battling cancer and is about to undergo another round of chemotherapy, he noted. That also played into his decision.

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