Former Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) — who resigned earlier this month over an affair with a staffer — claimed in a local newspaper story this week that he was going to quit anyway, regardless of the scandal.
From Indiana’s Journal Gazette:
Even if his adultery had not been exposed, Souder said, he had planned to withdraw from the re-election campaign in part from burnout and in part to let a new Republican be part of what he expects to be a large wave of GOP victories in November.
He said he reached that decision two days after the primary election when he won fewer than half the Republican votes.
As for Tracy Jackson, the former staffer who made a video praising abstinence with Souder, the ex-congressman told the local paper that she was a trusted adviser.
“Tracy and I regularly discussed any difficult decision for which I was weighing options or that she was editing and in-putting into most major statements,” Souder said. “Working with commentaries that aired daily, she best understood how I think, added a perspective from outside the Beltway and had my best interests in mind.”
Our relationship developed because of this, not the other way around, as some have implied.
“It didn’t start right away. You become good friends. Then you start and stop.”
