Hatfield Expected to Announce He Won’t Seek Reelection in ’96

Sen. Mark O. Hatfield, one of the few generally liberal Republican congressional leaders, is expected to announce today he will not seek reelection next year, joining a lengthy list of Capitol Hill veterans who have decided to give up their jobs.

Hatfield, 73, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has scheduled a news conference in Silverton, Ore., to reveal his plans. According to Republican officials who requested anonymity, he told his staff Thursday he would not seek a sixth term.

Officials in Hatfield’s office in Washington did not return a reporter’s call and a spokesman in his Oregon office declined comment.

But Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who before Hatfield’s departure for Oregon talked with him about his plans, said “he certainly left [the] impression” he would be leaving the Senate.

Dole declined to detail their conversation, leaving open the possibility that Hatfield, first elected in 1966, would reconsider his decision. “He might change his mind on the long flight,” Dole said.

If he doesn’t, Hatfield will be the 11th senator to decide to retire rather than seek reelection, a group that includes such well-known figures as Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) and Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.).

Additionally, Hatfield’s anticipated departure comes on the heels of the Oct. 1 resignation of Oregon’s other powerful Republican senator, Bob Packwood, who left office after the Senate Ethics Committee recommended his expulsion for sexual and official misconduct.

Packwood had headed the Senate Finance Committee. In concert with Hatfield, the pair controlled the flow of federal money and showered their home state with government largess, such as aid to the beleaguered timber industry, trade relief for Oregon-based shoemaker Nike Inc. and the cheapest electricity rates in the nation, produced by the Columbia River’s hydropower system.

For all of Hatfield’s long-term success at producing for his constituents, he repeatedly ran into political troubles with fellow congressional Republicans and GOP presidential administrations.

Indeed, Hatfield has long been noted for his independence, frequently espousing positions closely allied with liberal Democrats. Early in his Senate career, he co-sponsored with then-Sen. George S. McGovern (D-S.D.) an amendment to end the Vietnam War. Hatfield backed the nuclear freeze movement of the early 1980s.

Most recently, his reluctance to follow the GOP line put him at odds with the new breed of conservative activists who have taken control of Capitol Hill. Earlier this year, he was threatened with loss of his Appropriations Committee chairmanship when he opposed the balanced-budget amendment that narrowly failed in the Senate.

Hatfield survived the challenge, but the fact it occurred reflects the Senate’s changed atmosphere.

Hatfield suffered a blow to his reputation in 1992 when he was rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for failing to disclose more than $42,000 in gifts received between 1983 and 1988. The committee said Hatfield violated civil law and Senate rules by not reporting the gifts--which ranged from works of art to free home improvements--but found no evidence he intended to break the law.