Lautenberg, oldest US senator, dies at 89

In a May 3, 2012, file photo Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., speaks about student loans on the Rutgers-Camden campus in Camden, N.J. Lautenberg, a multimillionaire New Jersey businessman and liberal who was called out of retirement for a second tour of duty in Congress, died Monday, June 3, 2013, at age 89. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

WASHINGTON — Veteran US lawmaker Frank Lautenberg, the oldest member of the US Senate, passed away on Monday at the age of 89 due to complications from viral pneumonia, according to his office.

Lautenberg, who was the Senate’s last remaining World War II veteran, had said in February he would not seek a sixth term next year, setting up a major battle for the seat.

Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell called Lautenberg a “patriot whose success in business and politics made him a great American success story and a standout even within the fabled Greatest Generation.”

“The entire Senate is saddened today,” McConnell said in a statement.

Lautenberg, a member of President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party, championed gun control and was at the forefront of a failed effort earlier this year to ban assault rifles and limit the size of ammunition magazines.

He wrote the law that set the national legal drinking age at 21 and pushed legislation through Congress to reduce the blood alcohol limit that defined drunk driving.

Lautenberg, the son of poor Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants, joined the US Army when he was 18 and served in Europe in the Army Signal Corps.

He graduated from Columbia University and eventually became a successful businessman before entering politics.

His office said he passed away at 4:02 am (0800 GMT) at a New York hospital. He is survived by his wife, six children and 13 grandchildren.

The race to fill his New Jersey seat will be among the most closely watched in 2014 elections, with the popular and charismatic Newark Mayor Cory Booker seen as a frontrunner.