Ensign will not run for re-election
(CNN) - Sen. John Ensign of Nevada will go before cameras in Las Vegas Monday afternoon, to announce that he will not run for re-election next year, two sources tell CNN.
The two term Republican will make a statement at noon local (3 p.m. ET) at the Lloyd G. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas.
The one-time rising star in the Republican party admitted last June to an extramarital affair with Cindy Hampton, his onetime campaign treasurer. She is the wife of Doug Hampton, a former top aide to the senator.
Ensign's office announced last December that the senator had been told that he was no longer a target of a federal grand jury investigation into whether he violated the law in an effort to cover up the affair.
Ensign and his family were longtime friends with the Hamptons. Doug Hampton has given interviews stating his family has received money and employment offers from Ensign after he and his wife left the Senate staff in April 2008. Ensign admitted his parents gave the Hamptons $96,000 but said the money was a gift, not an effort to suppress word of the affair.
Ensign, who still faces Senate ethics charges resulting from the affair, had over the past few months been touring Nevada, asking voters in his home state for their forgiveness.
Rep. Dean Heller of Nevada's second congressional district is considered likely to run for the open seat.
Ensign brings to three the number of Republican senators who are retiring next year rather than run for re-election. Five Democratic senators are also not running for re-election.
The Democrats currently have a 53 to 47 majority in the Senate. They are defending 23 seats (21 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the party) next year, with the GOP defending 10 seats.
- Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
From CNN Politics
- Trump's defense team aims to poke holes in Democratic case January 25, 2020 09:12 pm
- Biden expects to be focus of Trump impeachment defense January 26, 2020 09:11 pm
- Schiff calls Trump 'vindictive' and says Trump's tweet was intended to intimidate January 26, 2020 05:14 pm
- Facts First: Fact-checking opening statements from President Trump's legal team January 25, 2020 08:28 pm
- Impeachment, war, and rally crowds: Trump made 49 false claims last week January 26, 2020 08:14 pm
- CNN poll: Sanders adds to momentum with lead in New Hampshire January 26, 2020 04:25 pm
This dirtbag Ensign should be thanking his stars that he has not been indicted.
thinking with that little brain again, eh Ensign?? You shoulda resigned last year. Hope you get embroiled in a civil lawsuit over this 'affair' and you end up washing cars for a living.....
Imagine that...a "gift" of $96,000 to the husband of your mistress. That money came from taxpayers and there should have been an indictment.
Another C street wingnut hypocrite down. Good riddance.
Sad, because he certainly seems to have the social moral, spiritual backbone of your classic "Conservative" Republican.
Shouldn't we hear the announcement directly from Mommy and Daddy?
I guess Republican politicians try so hard to legislate morality because the are so lacking in that field.
Does this mean we have to deal with Sharon Angle all over again?
"Republican Family Values"? Ahahahahahahahahahaha!
That's good; hopefully the good people of Nevada are not going to repeat ignorance by sending another Republican Senator to Washington.
That makes 8 senators who won't be back. Nibiru approaches
I wish all of these scumbags resign!!! This is a mopral and ethical issue not partisan, Just as I thought John Edwars was a dope so was his counterpart Newt Gingrich. Power corrupts and thats why our forefathers didn't want wealthy lawyers in washington forever. They should serve there terms and return to reguilar life and see how they screwed people lives up.
One less scumbucket clogging up our halls of state... Lets hear it for the good guys!
Another "family values" holier then thou GOP wife cheater bites the dust,GREAT! Obviously Ensign is a honor graduate of the Newt Gingrich school of wife cheating. What a hyprocrite. From the do as I say,not as I do party.
Another republican "moral compass"...lol
Another C streeter and Family member hitting the bricks. Good. Talk about elitist, it's one thing to think you are better than everyone due to being smart, it's another to think you are better than everyone because you are GRACED BY GOD like those people do. Seriously, look it up.
Shocker. Come on back ia few years (after Obama leaves office in 2016) like uncle Newtie Gingrich with the Stepford Wife and try to convince us all that you are the man of family values.
Forget the clown car, gonna need a bus with all these jokers in the R party.
Its a shame that most of the moderate Republicans are leaving and are being replaced by those who answer to the Tea Party and no one else!
If the $96K in hush money was only a "gift", then why make it look like it came from your parents, Mr. Ensign?
Bravo – his credibility is in question. Maximum tax-free gifts from both Ensign's mom and his dad to Ensign's girlfriend, her husband and to almost all of their kids (not the one who got a job via Ensign's intervention) reeked of antics bordering on illegal – "Hush-honey money"
Gee, I'd sure like a $96,000 "gift". Who can I sleep with???
Its harry reids fault. John ensighn is a great. Man. Just kidding
he does not have any kind of locus standi to run....cheat...o.k, idiot...
Like Webb and several others, he saw the writing on the wall. Doesn't make sense to run for a seat you can't win.
You make more as a lobbyist ask Ex Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho . He's working the halls of Congress and making big bucks ! !