[S]en. Francis Brooks, D-Washington, will not seek another term this year.
After more than three decades under the golden dome, the longtime Montpelier resident plans to call it quits.
Brooks was elected in 2016 to his current seat in the Senate. He first began serving in the Legislature in the early 1980s.
“I have great personal enjoyment in public service, not meant for headlines or anything like that,” he said Wednesday.
Brooks is one of many familiar legislators who won’t be back next year. Many longtime lawmakers, including chairs of five House committees and seven Senate committees, have opted not to seek another term.
Brooks, 75, said the deadline for filing his candidacy was “sooner than I would have liked.” Shortly before the deadline, he underwent treatment for a kidney stone. He also said he had some health concerns this year.
“I wasn’t feeling well, so I said, I don’t need to really push this,” Brooks said.
Brooks grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, and came to Vermont in 1963 as a student at Norwich University. He went on to become a teacher, settling in Montpelier.
Brooks served 13 terms as a member of the House beginning in 1983.
In 2008, he was elected sergeant-at-arms — a position responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the Legislature he held for seven years.
Brooks was voted out of the post in February 2015 by his former legislative peers, who elected current Sergeant-at-Arms Janet Miller to fill the position. The vote occurred about a month after protesters disrupted then-Gov. Peter Shumlin’s third inauguration, raising security concerns among some lawmakers.
“It was a very difficult decision to accept,” Brooks said. “The ones who made the decision … whether I was innocent or not never gave me the opportunity to defend myself.”
Brooks ran for a seat representing Washington County in the Senate in 2016.
“It felt like coming back home when you were kicked out of home,” Brooks said.
Brooks said he is most proud of his work that focused on children and education, including closing a loophole in a law related to child sexual abuse.
He also said he thinks he helped with the atmosphere of the Statehouse.
“I like to think that I accomplished causing this place to be just a little bit more flexible and mellow,” he said.
