Republican Representative Thaddeus McCotter, who dropped a quixotic presidential bid ۱۰ months ago, said on Friday he was leaving office, following two embarrassing episodes involving invalid petition signatures and a report he wrote a racy TV script,Reutersreported.
The five - term Michigan Republican, in a statement on his Facebook page, thanked his constituents and said he would depart Congress after " this past nightmarish month and a half. "
McCotter ' s bid for re - election in November was jeopardized when hundreds of signatures on his campaign petitions were deemed invalid, prompting an investigation by Michigan ' s attorney general.
The Detroit News also wrote about his proposed script for a TV show featuring a sinful protagonist who he said was " designed to be a train wreck. " The script was leaked by a former staffer.
McCotter, ۴۶, ended his long - shot bid for the ۲۰۱۲ Republican presidential nomination in September, two months after it began, after he failed to garner much attention. The guitar - playing congressman billed himself as the voice of a new generation of conservatives who would reform the government ' s Social Security pension system.
In his statement, he said: " The recent event ' s totality of calumnies, indignities and deceits have weighed most heavily upon my family.
" Thus, acutely aware one cannot rebuild their hearth of home amongst the ruins of their U. S. House office, for the sake of my loved ones I must ' strike another match, go start anew ' by embracing the promotion back from public servant to sovereign citizen, " he said, quoting from Bob Dylan ' s " It ' s All Over Now, Baby Blue. "
McCotter's resignation takes effect immediately. The Republicans will pick their candidate for his seat in a primary next month.
