Indiana's Mark Souder Resigns After Admitting Affair -- Replacement on the General Ballot Recommendation: Marlin Stutzman

The logical choice for Indiana's 3rd District nominee for the general election to replace Souder is the popular State Senator Marlin Stutzman who came in 2nd in the Senate primary won by Dan Coats. When we first heard what happened we knew he would make the perfect choice as he lives in the 3rd District of Indiana. In fact, we thought he should run against Souder in the primary for the Congressional seat and position himself for another run for Senate in the future. We believe Indiana 3rd District Republicans unlike the PA GOP Chair will choose the best man to win in November and in the opinion of many that is Marlin Stutzman.

Unlike the Democrats, Republican Leader Boehner didn't waste any time showing Souder the door after learning of the affair. It took Pelosi and her leadership months to oust the Democrat Massa who kept making gay advances towards aides and others but they looked the other way.

Souder never should have run this time with all the rumors swirling that have now been confirmed. Democrats were lying in wait to spring this out in the open during the general but their plans are dashed as a aide outed Souder. Having Marlin Stutzman as the nominee will make this seat an unlikely pickup for the Democrats. In fact we would put their chances at less than 5% if that to pick up the seat if Stutzman is chosen. We also expect the Stutzman choice to keep Democrat Congressional Committee money out of the race.

Washington Post -- Indiana Rep. Mark Souder resigns after admitting affair

The Christian faith is predicated on an understanding of man’s imperfection. But still so many Christians brag about their own virtue.

By modern standards, Souder’s scandal is Squaresville. He carried on an affair with a consenting adult woman who was a booster in his northwest Indiana district and a part-time staffer. But because Souder was such a holy roller, crusading against sex and drugs (I assume he had some reservations about rock ‘n roll), his moral blowout provides a rich vein of hypocrisy to be mined.
By talking so often of morality in his 16-year career in Congress, Souder made it almost inevitable that he would eventually do damage to the cause he went to Washington to serve. Pride goeth and all that.

It took House Minority Leader John Boehner took about 30 seconds to tell Souder to get out. A staffer got wise to Souder, confronted the congressman and then went to Boehner. Unlike Republicans who tried to stall on the creepy antics of Rep. Mark Foley in 2006 and the willful ignorance of Democrats about tickle-fan Eric Massa this year, Boehner didn’t dawdle.

Souder is so strange-looking that he might be commended under different circumstances for finding not one but two women who would have constituent relations with him. But as it is, he will quit Congress on Friday, setting up a scramble in his staunchly Republican district. Gov. Mitch Daniels can’t call a special election in less than two months, and might be inclined to just push the special until November to be held concurrently with the vote for the next full term.
GOP leaders will pick Souder’s replacement on the ballot and Democrats have even less hope that nominee Tom Hayhurst can win with Souder, a posterboy for incumbency disease even before his affair was exposed, will be able to win.

Writers Carol Leonning and Mary Ann Akers explain:

“One possible replacement is state Sen. Marlin Stutzman of Howe, who finished second to former senator Dan Coats in this month's GOP primary for the U.S. Senate.
Stutzman has a connection to Jackson's husband: Brad Jackson is a friend and pilot who sometimes flew Stutzman around the state for his Senate campaign.”

Cong Souder, (R-IN) Resigning due to an Affair -- Who will Replace him on the general election ballot?

Someone will have to peruse Indiana’s state laws to see if the Republicans can select a replacement candidate for the November ballot

Today as this news broke, we kept seeing the above on websites that someone would have to look up Indiana law to see what needs to be done. Why wasn't it done while writing the article? It took exactly 3 1/2 minutes to search, find the law, and read how Indiana goes about replacing candidates. It is short, to the point, and very easy to understand.

Indiana Code 3-13-1-4: A candidate vacancy for United States Representative shall be filled by a caucus comprised by the precinct committeemen of the political party whose precincts are within the congressional district.

This affair was brought out during the primary but Souder deflected the charges -- now this Representative who touted his 'family values' is resigning due to having the affair. We are hoping that Marlin Stutzman who placed second to Dan Coats in the Senate race will step forward as he lives in this District. We thought when Dan Coats decided to run for Senate that Stuzman should have considered taking on Souder at that time because rumors were rampant about Souder's affair. The old addage where there is smoke there is fire was true.

Now Indiana has a chance to get Marlin Stutzman as their Congressman.

We are getting a little bit sick and tired of hearing candidates say they are the family values candidate when it looks to be just be hollow words. Souder is not the first and won't be the last. Some states have had that problem in their State Legislature.

Candidates need to run on integrity, honesty, and ethics and then they won't have to worry about saying they are the family values candidate because they live it every day.

Just two weeks after he won a hard-fought Republican primary in Indiana to keep his seat, Rep. Mark Souder will resign his office. Fox News reports that an affair with a staffer has become publicly known, and Souder will exit rather than face an Ethics Committee investigation (via Dave Weigel):

Eight-term Rep. Mark Souder will announce his resignation Tuesday after it came to light that he was conducting an affair with a female staffer who worked in his district office, Fox News has learned.

Multiple senior House sources indicated that the extent of the affair would have landed Souder before the House Ethics Committee.

Elected as a family values conservative as part of the Republican revolution in 1994, Souder survived a tough re-election challenge in 2008 and survived a contested primary two weeks ago.

Say, wouldn’t it have been a good idea to make this decision three weeks ago?

Souder’s abrupt exit puts the GOP in a tough position. Someone will have to peruse Indiana’s state laws to see if the Republicans can select a replacement candidate for the November ballot, and what the process might be. Bob Thomas came in second to Souder, about 11,000 votes behind him and 15,000 ahead of Phil Troyer. If the GOP can make a ballot switch, the logical choice would be Thomas, but that’s a big if. They may have to go with a write-in campaign.

Excerpt: Read More at Hot Air