Lantos' office issued a statement announcing the decision the morning of Jan. 3.
"Routine medical tests have revealed that I have cancer of the esophagus," Lantos said in a quotation printed on his Congressional Web site. "In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek re-election."
 U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, pictured with environmental activist Lennie Roberts, speaks during the 2007 groundbreaking ceremonies for the Devil's Slide tunnels. Lantos was a longtime champion of the tunnel project. |
His disturbing medical tests may have been routine, but there was nothing routine about Lantos' life.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Lantos was hardened at the age of 16 when Nazis steamrolled into his native country in one of the many horrors that together became known as World War II. He was a member of the anti-Nazi underground and later rallied against communists. He is the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in the U.S. Congress.
Before running for elective office he was a professor of economics and a senior advisor to senators.
Upon his election in 1980, he became well-known for his grasp of international affairs and commitment to human rights. In 1983 he founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and a fellowship in his name continues, aimed at bringing European students to the United States to further understanding between nations.
He was never shy from expressing views - both popular and unpopular.
Lantos was an early supporter of war with Iraq only later to criticize President Bush's handling of the crisis. In 2006, the congressman was arrested outside the Sudanese embassy during a protest of that government's role in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Just last year, Lantos made headlines for lambasting Yahoo executives from Silicon Valley as they testified before Congress - called there for turning over the identity of a Chinese national that led to the man's imprisonment.
"Morally," Lantos said, while staring down Yahoo brass, "you are pygmies."
Closer to home, Lantos will always be known as a champion of environmental causes.
Lantos posed with Peninsula Open Space Trust President Audry Rust after his work to add 4,700 acres, including the massive Coastside tract known as Rancho Corral de Tierra, to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. When complete, the transfer will assure the land is held by the federal government in perpetuity. He has also fought against those who would allow oil drilling off the California coast.
Last year he stood side-by-side with Lennie Roberts, the iconic legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills, at the groundbreaking for the Devil's Slide tunnel project.
"It's a real loss for San Mateo County and for the country," Roberts said, adding that was especially true after his ascension to chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"I actually knew him before he ran for Congress," Roberts said. "He was very interested in preserving Edgewood Park. It's amazing what he has been able to do."
While no one has declared an interest in Lantos's Congressional seat, two names have surfaced. One is former state Sen. Jackie Speier, who once served as an aide for U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, who held Lantos' seat, before being killed in Jonestown, Africa, in 1978. Another possible candidate is current state Sen. Leland Yee, who issued a statement the day of Lantos' announcement, saying the time was not right to discuss the future of the office.
Whoever takes the seat will have big shoes to fill. Lantos has become a legend.
"It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a member of Congress," Lantos writes on his Web site. "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."
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