Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), long a favorite of conservative activists, has announced that he will retire from the House this year.
Shadegg’s district voted 56%-42% for John McCain in 2008, and 58%-41% for George W. Bush in 2004. Shadegg was first elected in 1994, and after 2004 held the fifth-highest position in the House GOP leadership as chair of the Republican Policy Committee. He resigned that post in January 2006 to run for Majority Leader, after Tom DeLay stepped down, but came in third place on the first ballot. He then ran for Minority Whip after the 2006 elections, losing to incumbent GOP Whip Roy Blunt.
In the current 111th Congress, Shadegg is perhaps best known for when he held a baby during the health care debate, describing detailed political views that the baby was supposed to have on health care policy, taxes and the free-market system. He also publicly speculated on violent acts that terrorists could commit during terrorism trials in New York City: “How are you going to feel when it’s some clerk — some innocent clerk of the court — whose daughter or son is kidnapped? Or the judge’s wife? Or the jailer’s little brother or little sister?”
