After 10 years in Congress, state rep McCarthy will retire

Democratic Rep. Karen McCarthy will retire after 10 years in Congress, her hometown newspaper reported Sunday.

McCarthy, 56, told The Kansas City Star she seeks tranquility.

"I want to focus on balance in my life," she said. "Too often, I've put my career and helping others ahead of my own needs. I made sacrifices willingly; it was what I did best."

McCarthy's descent began last March with a drunken fall on a government escalator. It ended amid allegations that she misused her staff and her campaign for personal gain, such as several trips to the Grammy Awards.

Her exit foretells a lively primary race in Kansas City, Mo., an area likely to remain in Democratic hands. Local leaders are entreating beloved former Mayor Emanuel Cleaver to run. Among those already running, newcomer Jamie Metzl has raised more than $310,000.

Cleaver did not answer calls Sunday to his cell phone or the church where he is pastor, St. James United Methodist Church. Another Democrat, Damian Thorman, also is running, as are two Republicans, Steve Dennis and Jeff Brauner.

McCarthy, 29 when she left teaching to enter the state legislature, rose to chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee during her 18 years in the Missouri House.

She headed the National Conference of State Legislatures in 1994, when she emerged as the front-runner to succeed then-Rep. Alan Wheat, who was leaving Congress to challenge Republican former Sen. John Ashcroft.

Her record on social and foreign policy has been reliably liberal, supporting abortion rights and gun control as well as the global warming treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, requiring a rollback of greenhouse gas emissions. She has backed labor in opposing several trade bills, including permanent normal trade relations for China.

McCarthy maintained a low profile for eight years until her very public fall on March 21, when she hurled her satchel at an aide, lost her balance and gashed her forehead on the escalator steps. Because of her fall, McCarthy missed an important vote on Bush's tax cut.

The incident called attention to a pattern of behavior her low profile had obscured. McCarthy frequently missed votes, at a rate higher than two-thirds of her 435 colleagues, according to AP analysis. And the turnover among her staff of about 14 people was so high, she lost more than one aide each month, according to the AP's review.

Then McCarthy got into a dispute with House bookkeepers over a campaign consultant she had hired; she wanted taxpayers to pay some of the bill.

Finally, McCarthy came under fire when former aides spoke out in interviews with AP, saying she went to the Grammys and stayed in the historic Waldorf-Astoria hotel on the campaign dime, which goes against House conduct rules and federal election rules.

Aides also said she used them as personal chauffeurs to and from work and on personal errands, which is against federal law.

Travel documents obtained by the AP backed up the claims.

McCarthy defended herself in a recent television interview, but eight minutes into it, she abruptly walked out.

"It seems to me you're looking for how to kick a person when she's down, and people see that for what it is, and you need to know that. Bye," she told KMBC-TV, rising from her seat and walking out of the room.