Lantos will not seek reelection

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday he would not seek reelection because he has been diagnosed with cancer.

“Routine medical tests have revealed that I have cancer of the esophagus,” Lantos said in a statement. “In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek reelection.”

{mosads}A native of Hungary, Lantos, 79, was elected to Congress in 1980. He is the only Holocaust survivor to serve in either chamber and is the founding member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

“It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress,” he said. “I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.”

Democrats have carried the seat since Lantos defeated the Republican incumbent nearly 28 years ago. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) received 72 percent of the vote in the district in 2004.

In 2006, Lantos received 76 percent of the vote, but he anticipated a challenge from the left in 2008 from former California state Sen. Jackie Speier.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) would be in line to succeed Lantos on Foreign Affairs.