By Associated Press
Muscle Shoals, AL – Alabama's longest continually serving state senator, Democrat Bobby Denton of Muscle Shoals, announced Saturday that will not seek re-election next year and will end a career that has earned him the titles "dean of the Senate" and "Maalox of the Senate."
The eight-term senator announced his decision in Cherokee, where he grew up in northwest Alabama.
In an interview Wednesday in Montgomery, the 70-year-old senator said he began to think about retiring last year when his health got so bad he could barely walk. He went through three operations in one week - one for spinal stenosis, another for a blood clot and another for hydrocephalus.
Denton was elected to his first term in the Senate in 1978, and has spent about four months of each year since then making weekly trips to Montgomery. He said the recent birth of his first great grandchild convinced him it was time to stay home and spend more time enjoying his family.
Paraphrasing "Ecclesiastes" from the Bible, Denton said, "There's a time to run and there's a time to give it up."
Denton's said the proudest accomplishment of his career is getting the four major towns in his district - Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals - to work together on economic development rather than competing. He's also helped develop the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and recruit a major rail car manufacturing plant to northwest Alabama.
At the Statehouse, Denton holds the official title of "dean of the Senate." The Senate gave him that title in 2003 in recognition of his long service.
But he's also had two unofficial titles.
He's known as the "singing senator" because he recorded some of the earliest hit records in Muscle Shoals in the late 1950s. He made the charts with "A Fallen Star," "Sweet and Innocent," "Back to School," and other records. He also appeared on Dick Clark's TV show before giving up his music career to raise a family.
After a 40-year career in business and education, Denton returned to recording a few years ago as a hobby and has produced records of standards and gospel.
Denton's other unofficial title is "Maalox of the Senate," which he earned because he tries to soothe the Senate when debate gets tense and tempers flare.
Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. said Denton has become the Senate's "voice of reason" and he will be missed in that role.
"He's the most well-liked senator on both sides of the aisle. I've never known Bobby Denton to have an enemy."
That was demonstrated Thursday.
House Republicans have been blocking Senate Democrats' bills from passing in the House because a Senate Democrat has been stopping House Republicans' bills from passing in the Senate. On Thursday, House Republicans agreed to make an exception for a bill by Denton and let it pass.
The bill requires hospitals to notify the state health department when a patient acquires an infection. Denton proposed the bill because his son Mike died from an infection acquired after routine knee surgery in 2002.
Rep. Mike Hubbard, the House minority leader and chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, said Republicans' support for the bill was "a sign of respect for Sen. Denton and his family."
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