GOP Rep. Rick Renzi (AZ-01) was indicted last Friday on 35 counts relating to a land-swap deal - but he refuses to give up his seat.
Why does this matter? Because Republicans lost 30 seats in 2006 in part because of the Republican "Culture of Corruption" which included Duke Cunningham's massive bribery scheme and Mark Foley's abuse of House Pages.
Former Speaker Denny Hastert helped cover up Foley's abuses and resigned as Republican leader. When John Boehner (OH-8) beat out Roy Blunt (MO-7) for GOP leader, Boehner promised to end the Republican "Culture of Corruption" so Republicans could win back the House in 2008.
Of course Boehner didn't have much impact on Senator Larry Craig's (R-ID) decision to stay in the Senate because Senators aren't under his control. But Renzi is under Boehner's control and so Renzi's decision to stay in Congress is a direct challenge to the central principle of Boehner's leadership.
Will Boehner fulfill his promise to end the Republican "Culture of Corruption"? Will he strip Renzi of his committee assignments and find other ways to "persuade" him to resign?
Not on Karl Rove's life. Why? Because Democrats would win the seat if he did, or at least bleed the NRCC dry:
in pressuring Renzi — who has denied any wrongdoing and who said Monday he would not resign — to step down, Republicans might actually be making their political dilemma worse. If Renzi were to resign before May 4, Republicans would be forced to defend an expansive and expensive eastern Arizona seat in a special election with little money in their campaign coffers and without a leading candidate in a very muddled field.
“I don’t think it is in the national party’s interest to have a special election at this point,” said Nathan Sproul, a Republican consultant based in Arizona. “The Democrats have far more money, and it would put the Republicans far deeper in debt.”
An early special election would force the Republicans’ hand in spending millions of dollars to retain a seat that has been held by Republicans since its creation in 2002. The National Republican Congressional Committee ended January with only $6.4 million in its campaign account, and an all-out effort for Renzi’s seat would be costly.
So Democrats need to force Renzi to resign before May 4. What's the plan?
