Rep. Tom Lantos represents my district (12th) and I have voted for him in every election, despite that fact that he is a Democrat and I a Republican. I don’t agree with his positions on every issue, but believe him to be a principled man and he has represented my district honorably. I admire his accomplishments and his humility, and hold him as an example of what public service should be about, serving the public and not a person. He is retiring from Congress to fight a personal war with cancer and will leave some big shoes to fill, whoever his successor ultimately is.

“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,” he said. “I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.”

[From Lantos diagnosed with cancer, but says he'll finish term]