Lott Say’s He’ll Step Down By the End of the Year
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PASCAGOULA, Miss. —Senator Lott of Mississippi announced yesterday he will leave a 35-year career in Congress in which he epitomized the Republicans’ political takeover of the South after the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Mr. Lott said he wanted to leave on a “positive note.” He was first elected to Congress on the coattails of President Nixon’s re-election landslide in 1972 — with 72% of the vote in Mississippi.
His decision to retire by year’s end occurred five years after he was bounced as the leader of his party in the Senate over remarks praising a Senate colleague that were interpreted as endorsing segregation.
Mr. Lott rebounded a year ago, winning re-election to a fourth term in the Senate and narrowly defeating Senator Alexander of Tennessee for the party’s no. 2 post lining up and counting votes as GOP whip behind the minority leader, Senator McConnell of Kentucky.
Despite Republicans’ loss of both Senate and House majorities last year, Mr. Lott, 66, said being a member of the minority wasn’t a deciding factor in his decision to resign.
“I don’t like being in the minority as much and if I was 20 years younger, I’d be mounting my horse, saying, ‘Let’s get this majority back,'” Mr. Lott told a hometown crowd of supporters in Pascagoula.
