Senator Barbara Mikulski, Maryland Democrat and Role Model, to Retire in 2017

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, the animated and occasionally irascible Democrat from Maryland who rose from being a community organizer to become the longest-serving woman in Congress, announced that she would retire when her term ends in 2017.

The surprising decision came just a few months after Republicans gained control of the Senate, reducing Sen Mikulski from chairwoman to of the powerful Appropriations Committee, where she had been the first woman to lead the panel, to ranking member. Sen Mikulski, 78, announced her decision to not seek a sixth term. Sen Mikulski said that she wanted to spend the next two years in Congress focusing on her work instead of raising money and campaigning.