Margaret Chase Smith

U.S. Sen. Barbara MikulskiSpeculation that Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Baltimore) may retire following the end of her current term in January 2011 is not true, according to Melissa Schwartz, the senator’s communications director.

“Senator Mikulski has been clear in numerous reports that she’s not shy and not retiring,” Schwartz said in an e-mail to PolitickerMD.com.

The statement would seem to indicate that Mikulski will run for re-election in 2010, but Schwartz said the senator “has not formally declared” her intention.

Mikulski, currently in the fourth year of her term, is the senior female in the Senate, having served since 1987. She has nearly six years of seniority on her nearest female colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who began serving on Nov. 10, 1992, following a special election victory.

Female Dean of the Senate: Mikulski and other women Senators in the 110th Congress.Barbara Mikulski is the modern dean of women U.S. Senators. She gained that respect by climbing the ladder of Baltimore politics, spending a decade in the House, and another two decades in the Senate. Regardless of party, every one of her newly-elected female colleagues pays a visit to seek advice from a woman who has weathered the Senate for over two decades.

Mikulski is the longest-serving woman currently in the Senate, besting Senators Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein and Patty Murrary by about five years. At the end of her current term, Mikulski will surpass the longest-serving woman Senator in history, Maine's Margaret Chase Smith, who served four full terms.