POLITICAL FIGURES: “GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said Tuesday [10-24-17] he wouldn’t run for re-election next year, declaring himself unwilling to follow the lead of President Donald Trump, whose behavior in office he painted as ‘not normal’ and dangerous to democracy.
Mr. Flake is the second Senate Republican in less than a month to announce plans to retire from the chamber, following Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.
‘We have fooled ourselves long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner,’ Mr. Flake said on the Senate floor. ‘I will not be complicit or silent.’
The Arizonan, who was first elected to the Senate in 2012 after six terms in the House, said the Republican Party under Mr. Trump was changing in ways he couldn’t support. Over the summer, Mr. Flake published a book decrying what he described as the drift in Republican ideology away from its conservative underpinnings and toward Mr. Trump’s brand of combative, nationalist populism…
Mr. Flake didn’t name Mr. Trump but directed his comments squarely at him as he said the president’s conduct fell short of the needed standards.”
-Kristina Peterson and Siobhan Hughes, “Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake Says He Won’t Seek Re-Election,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 24, 2017 05:08pm