Earlier today a story of a married congressman sending sexy photos to a woman on Craigslist, made headlines but drew little attention from political media. By the end of the day, Chris Lee had resigned.
Ben Smith at Politico comments:
And here I'd been ignoring this because it didn't seem like news
In a world where politicians seem to compete for the title of most outrageous and depraved scandal, sending a flirty muscle photo to someone on Craigslist seems rather tame. Also those familiar with D.C.'s culture are aware that it is about as Puritan as a frat house. A popular maxim is that you can weather any scandal as long as you aren't caught with a dead girl or a live boy. So this was dismissed as embarrasing but definitely not career ending, probably something that would be forgotten in a week or so.
Whatever the reason, Lee's resignation was swift and are the actions of a man who knows that this is only the tip of the iceberg or the actions of a man who knows that he screwed up and is trying to save his family.
This creates the need for a special election and Democrats have done well in special elections in New York recently. Scott Murphy defeated Jim Tedisco in a Republican leaning district in early 2009 to replace Kirsten Gillibrand. Bill Owens then won a three way contest over Conservative Party member Doug Hoffman in 2009 after Republican Dede Scovofava dropped out and crossed party lines to endorse Owens. The local Democratic party is far more efficient
Further complicating matters is that Lee was a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee so his congressional district would likely have remained intact in redistricting. Now this district will be a carved up in redistricting.
More on the special election as it develops.
