New York Republican Rep. Christopher Lee resigned Wednesday after becoming the latest married politician exposed for unfaithful behavior.
“The challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue,”said Lee in a statement, “and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress.”
Gawker reported earlier on Wednesday that Lee responded to a January 14 “Women for Men” post on Craigslist made by an unnamed Maryland woman.
Lee responded to the post from his personal e-mail account, “Hope I’m not a toad. 🙂 I’m a very fit fun classy guy. Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft 190lbs blond/blue. 39.. Lobbyist. I promise not to disappoint.”
The 46 year-old congressman said that he was divorced and sent a shirtless photo to the woman.
At 3:37 a.m. on the morning of January 15, Lee wrote, “So when was your lasat [sic] date. And how did it go?” Lee said that his last date, presumably arranged via Craigslist, was the previous Monday. He complained that the last woman “was not as advertised.”
A spokesman for Lee confirmed to Gawker that the e-mail account used belonged to the congressman, but claimed that the e-mail account was “hacked.” The woman broke off contact with Lee after searching his name online.
According to Gawker, Lee’s spokesman said, “the Congressman is happily married” and that “The only time he or his wife posted something online was to sell old furniture when they changed the apartment they keep in DC.”
Lee was first elected to represent New York’s 26th congressional district in 2008.