Embattled Rep. Ney Won't Seek Reelection

Pushed by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Ney gave up the chairmanship of the Administration Committee in January. In May, Volz confessed that he and other Abramoff associates had conspired "to unjustly enrich themselves by . . . providing, while lobbyists, a stream of things of value with the intent to influence and reward official acts."

In late June, three senior Ney aides departed en masse, while a fourth aide was ordered by federal prosecutors to turn over documents and testify before a federal grand jury on Ney's ties to Abramoff.

A major report by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that month strongly suggested that Ney had lied to committee investigators, a charge now under review by the Justice Department.

Boehner, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.) and other House Republican leaders made it clear this spring that Ney would receive no financial backing from the party in his re-election bid.

Ney was finding it difficult to raise money in his poor, largely rural district, and Washington was drying up as a source for campaign cash. But party leaders had begun to despair that Ney would not yield to pressure to drop out of the race.

Then, last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began spending more than $1.5 million on Democrat Zack Space's campaign to unseat Ney. Had the DCCC waited two more weeks, House GOP aides said, Ohio's deadline to replace Ney's name on the ballot would have passed.

But once Boehner saw reports of the Democratic spending, he met with Ney last week and forcefully argued with his longtime Ohio colleague that it was in his family's best interest to step down.

Ney's attorneys, Mark H. Tuohey and William E. Lawler, issued a separate statement saying his decision was driven by politics and family, not by legal considerations. They restated their contention that "there is no credible basis to charge him with a violation of law."

"He recognizes that the ongoing investigation has created a tremendous amount of media speculation and has become an issue in the current race," the lawyers said. "Congressman Ney wants the voters of his district to be able to have an election focused on issues and not distractions, and for that reason, he has taken his name off the ballot."

Ney moved quickly to anoint Ohio state Sen. Joy Padgett as his successor on the ballot, a position she quickly accepted, although she could face a primary challenge. Reynolds called the district "ruby red," predicting that voters who gave President Bush 57 percent of their votes in 2004 would easily elect a Republican to succeed Ney.

Democrats' experience with the election to replace Cunningham underscores the difficulty of condemning the entire Republican Party with the sins of one member. With Cunningham in jail, Democrat Francine Busby made corruption the centerpiece of her campaign against Brian Bilbray, a Republican lobbyist and former House member. Yet she lost to Bilbray in a special-election runoff in June and was barely able to improve on Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 showing in the San Diego district.

Democratic challenger Space's entire campaign was built around Ney's legal problems, according to Walter, the political analyst. Now Space, a relative neophyte in politics, will have to retool his campaign while the Republicans rebuild theirs.

"This has allowed the Republicans to at least change the argument," said Walter, who for now will keep the race rated a tossup. "They will be fighting on more even political terrain."