She announced Friday she won’t run for re-election if the term limit-changing Proposition 93 passes Tuesday and is dropping her bid for the 16th District state Senate seat.

“With the birth of my two nephews, one who’s 2 and one born two weeks ago, you sort of change perspective on what you want in life,” said Parra, who turns 38 on Sunday. “I want to focus on my personal life, and in one place.”

That one place is Sacramento, Parra said, where she’s interested in picking up some sort of government consulting work. She’ll still stump for presidential hopeful Barack Obama — she said she’s “tired of Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton” — and may support more local office seekers behind-the-scenes, Parra said.

Parra, who grew up in Bakersfield and is the daughter of former Kern County Supervisor Pete Parra, said she’s been thinking of leaving elected officeholding for about six months but solidified her decision over the holidays.

“It’s good to leave when people want you to stay,” she said.

Parra was first elected to the Assembly in 2002 and re-elected in 2004 — both times against Bakersfield businessman Dean Gardner in nasty affairs. Parra beat retired California Highway Patrol Officer Danny Gilmore of Hanford in 2006.

The 30th District is largely rural and heavily Hispanic. It includes much of western Kern County as well as southeast Bakersfield plus Arvin and Lamont. Parra was planning to run for the state Senate seat being vacated by her political arch-rival, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, in 2010.

Her senate campaign had nearly $175,000 in the bank as of Dec. 31, and she’s still deciding what to do with that cash.

Gilmore and Florez’s mother, Fran Florez, have active campaign finance committees for a 30th District bid this year. Gardner said he’s pretty sure he won’t run.

Parra said her biggest accomplishments start with strengthening Megan’s Law — which makes public information about registered sex offenders — and include bringing clean water to the town of Alpaugh, helping veterans, and doing charity work through her office and family’s foundation.

She and Florez often tussled over policy and didn’t like each other personally. On Friday, he wished her luck — then took a swipe.

“On the face of it, it’s a pretty shocking announcement,” Florez said. “But I can appreciate Nicole’s desire to have a family life. The pressures of Sacramento and public life are very difficult and require a great deal of focus and resiliency.”

“Nicole and I were oftentimes at opposite ends of various issues such as worker safety, clean air and food safety just to name a few,” Florez continued. “For the most part she stood in the way of needed reforms and quite honestly, being a stumbling block can be tiring, I guess.”

Gardner was nicer.

“I’m very happy for her,” he said. “I believe the people who represent her district in government should live and work in the private sector for a while, see how they really operate.”

Vic Pollard, who used to cover the Legislature for The Californian, said Parra took a low-profile, community-service approach to her job, rather than a flashy, swashbuckling approach favored by Florez.

“She came up here with a lot of promise as an attractive, young Latina lawmaker, and did not make much of a name for herself on her own,” he said.

She had attracted support in her campaign from prominent liberals, especially from women in the Legislature, but disappointed them with a moderate-to-conservative voting record that was generally pro-business and pro-farmer, he said.

Jack Duncan, executive director of the Kern County Republican Party, said “I’ll be darned” about Parra’s decision.

“There were a lot of issues we disagreed on, but I think she served her district well,” he said.

Duncan said he helped Gardner’s campaigns against her and “I can tell you, she was a formidable opponent.”

Parra’s dad said he has mixed feelings because she’s been a good legislator but has had to live like a “vagabond” her entire adult life — as college student, law school student, congressional aide for retired Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Hanford, and then an assemblywoman.

She’s moved from apartment to apartment, at times lived in her car practically and made career priority No. 1 — which is tough on a young woman, Pete Parra said.

“As she’s gotten a little older, she’d like to enjoy some of the things a private person can enjoy,” he said. “A lot of her relationships have ended because she’s so busy, she’s committed to the job first.”

But she’ll never give up public service entirely, the elder Parra said. He said the whole family has been discussing this for a while.

“It’s time for the Parra name to become private,” he said. “It’s been public a long time.”

— Staff writer James Geluso contributed to this report.