Disgraced Republican senator John Ensign calls it quits

John Ensign's decision to resign means he will avoid awkward questions about pay-off that followed festering sex scandal

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Senator John Ensign announces his retirement from the Senate. Photograph: Steve Marcus/Reuters

The life-cycle of the modern political scandal can be sketched in therecent career of John Ensign, the Republican senator from Nevada whoabruptly announced that he was resigning.

When he was first found to have been having an affair with the wife of his office's chief of staff, Ensign's response two years ago was to fight on as senator.

Then as more details emerged and accusations multiplied, including the payment of $96,000 by Ensign's parents to the former staff member, the Senate Ethics Committee launched the latest in a long line of investigations last month. Shortly afterwards, Ensign announced that he wouldn't be running for re-election in 2012.

The final act came on Thursday, when Ensign bowed to the inevitable by issuing a statement saying that he was stepping down on 3 May – one day before he was due to be questioned under oath about the $96,000 payment.

"Senator Ensign has made the appropriate decision," the Senate Ethics Committee said in a terse statement [pdf].

With Nevada a volatile swing state, Ensign's early departure slightly improves the chances of the Republican party retaining the seat in the 2012 election.

Nevada's Republican governor is certain to appoint congressman Dean Heller, the leading Republican candidate for the seat, to serve as senator of the remainder of Ensign's term, thus making Heller the incumbent.

The Democratic opposition to Heller in 2012 is expected to be representative Shelley Berkley, a highly competitive candidate.

In his mawkish yet combative statement, Ensign still maintains that he did nothing wrong:

While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings. For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great.

Ensign noted in his defence that "both the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission saw no grounds on which to charge me with improper conduct".

Ensign's resignation means the Senate Ethics Committee's 22-month-long investigation will be terminated.

The resignation may be good news for Tea Party hero Sharron Angle. With Dean Heller taking Ensign's US Senate seat, Angle can run in the special election for Heller's congressional district, only months after her disastrous and hugely expensive loss to Democratic majority leader Harry Reid in the election for Nevada's other senate seat.