Columbus, Ohio - Representative Bob Ney, dogged by an influence peddling probe in Washington, announced Monday that he will not seek re-election.
The Republican had insisted he would not resign, even if indicted over his dealings with now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In his first primary test in a decade, Ney won 68 percent of the vote May 2 against a little-known opponent.
But in a statement released by his campaign Monday morning, Ney said he would not run for a seventh term.
"Ultimately this decision came down to my family. I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal," Ney said.
He plans to serve the remainder of his term, his statement said.
State Senator Joy Padgett, a fellow Republican, said early Monday that Ney asked her to run in his place.
"It's a very sad time," Padgett said of Ney's decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site.
She said Ney told her, "that there's only so much he can take. He said, 'I have to do this.'"
Padgett told The Associated Press she would run for Ney's seat.
Ney has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
He faced a tough challenge in November from Democrat Zack Space, who had made the Justice Department's investigation into Ney a focus of his campaign.
For the first three months of 2006, Ney's campaign spent more than it raised, a deficit he blamed on mounting legal costs. In the past three months, it was unusually intense campaigning in his expansive rural district that caused the incumbent to spend $52,675 more than donors gave him, he said.
"I'm embattled and attacked; I understand that," Ney told The AP last month after Space raised about $190,000 more than Ney for the quarter.
(Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
