SAN ANTONIO—Democratic Congressional Candidate Sylvia Romo on Tuesday morning released the following statement about her age in response to an opinion column in Tuesday’s Austin American-Statesman:

“There is no expiration date on service to one’s country. I do not believe, in our society, that age should be an issue in a Congressional campaign when so much more is at stake for the people of the 35th Congressional District.”

“I have always believed that age was most important when selecting a bottle of wine or a fine cheese. It was and has never been my intention to deliberately keep my age from the Austin American-Statesman or any other publication, and I regret that they have characterized it in this way. My intention was to point out that experience and what a candidate will do when elected matters more than age, particularly when it comes to female candidates. I believe that the Statesman’s attempt to make this an issue is inappropriate given the weighty issues facing our country, our state, and this district.”

“For the Statesman to make it sound as though I was deliberately hiding my age or that it was not already a known fact is deceitful. The Statesman published my age, 69, in a story on April 5, 2012, well before I sat down with them for the interview in question.”

“While I am flattered that the Statesman and Ken Hermann think I look so youthful as to evidently disbelieve their own previously published figure, I am also disappointed that Austin’s newspaper of record has stooped to the level of arguing with candidates about whether or not age is important. Further, it’s surprising that this is apparently an issue with a female candidate and not with male candidates. Possibly, Mr. Herman will be writing that piece next week on Vice President Biden who is also 69?”