FORT WAYNE — Former Rep. Mark Souder planned to end his re-election campaign even before his extramarital affair with a female aide became known because he was burned out from more than 15 years in Congress, he said in an interview published Sunday.
Souder — told The Journal Gazette he also planned to withdraw from his re-election campaign because it would let a new northeastern Indiana Republican become part of what he expects to be a wave of GOP victories in November.
He said he decided to withdraw from the race two days after May 4 primary election victory in which he received fewer than half of the Republican votes.
However, he decided to speed up his exit after he admitted his affair with part-time staff member Tracy Jackson to a few people and learned it would trigger a House ethics committee inquiry, he said. He turned in his resignation Friday.
"Nobody had to threaten me. Nobody had to be belligerent. What they had to do was lay out the arguments, and they had to show me how it was also in my own interests, long term," he told the newspaper.
Souder also said he calculated Gov. Mitch Daniels would not call a special election until the November general election because the cost would be too great. That way, 19 remaining staff members — Jackson also resigned — could keep their jobs while they look for other work. They will report to the House clerk until a new representative is elected.
"I am deeply humiliated that I let them all down," Souder said.
Daniels said Friday that he is considering waiting until November because of the estimated $1 million cost of a special election.
Souder, 59, was first elected to his seat in 1994. He hired Jackson, 45, in late 2004 as a part-time employee. She coordinated commentaries that aired on a Christian radio station and conducted interviews shown on cable-access channels and on Souder's congressional website.
He said she also was an adviser to him.
"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," he said, referring to the suggestion that he hired Jackson because he was seeing her.
He declined to discuss when their affair began but said it ended six months ago when the couple were in a parked car in a nature preserve in Whitley County, west of Fort Wayne. A state conservation officer tapped on a car window and told them to move along.
"At the end of the day, if we get through all this, we'll be better for having gotten caught," he said.
Souder has been married to his wife, Diane, since 1974.
Souder said he does not know what he will do next professionally.
"What I need to do is go back to Indiana so Diane and I have time together and get on with the rest of my life," he said.
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