By Andy Ostmeyer

aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com

FRONTENAC, Kan. — State Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, will not seek re-election, he announced over the weekend.

Barone was first elected from the 13th District, which takes in Crawford and Bourbon counties and part of Cherokee County, in 1996, and was re-elected in 2000 and 2004.

“It was a great 12 years,” Barone said Monday, “but 12 is enough. The six-hour round-trip drive to Topeka gets awfully old.”

Asked if he had any plans to run for another office, Barone said, “Never say never.”

Then he added, “Nothing in the foreseeable future.”

Barone worked for 30 years as a manager for the former Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. before retiring.

In a letter, Barone cited the “historic tradition of this Senate District, the spirit of a citizen legislature not professional politicians, and my personal beliefs.”

He noted that states with term limits do not allow senators to serve more than 12 years, and that only one state senator from the district served more than 13 years. E.F. Porter served from 1900 to 1916.

Barone is the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.

“We certainly appreciate his assistance and loyalty to PSU throughout his tenure,” Howard W. Smith, assistant to the Pittsburg State University president, said Monday.

He recalled Barone’s role in obtaining funding for the Kansas Technology Center and more recently Barone’s help in establishing grant money to boost enrollment for the school’s nursing program.

But Barone has been embattled on a number of fronts in recent years.

Last summer, Democratic leaders in the Senate removed Barone from the Ways and Means Committee in advance of the legislative session.