Resignation Letter<\/a><\/p>\nRep. Trey Radel will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources.<\/p>\n
Radel was caught buying cocaine last year from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility. He returned to Congress after the winter recess.<\/p>\n
The first-term Republican plans to send a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Monday, sources said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s up to Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott to schedule a special election for Radel\u2019s seat. His southwest Florida district is solidly Republican \u2014 Mitt Romney won the district with 61 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n
The race for Radel\u2019s seat had begun even before he decided to resign. Republican Paige Kreegel, a former state representative, has already launched a campaign for the 19th district. Kreegel, who finished third to Radel in a 2012 primary, has drawn the support of a super PAC, which has raised $1 million with the intention of helping him win the seat.<\/p>\n
Lizbeth Benacquisto, a Republican leader in the Florida Senate in Tallahassee, is widely expected to run for the seat. Former Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), who held the seat before Radel, has also mulled a run.<\/p>\n
Before this incident, Radel looked like he had a bright career. He gained prominence by playful banter on Twitter. He called himself the hip hop Congressman.<\/p>\n
But in Oct. 2013, Radel was caught buying cocaine at a Dupont Circle restaurant from an undercover federal agent. He didn\u2019t tell his colleagues or House Republican leadership about the incident. But on Nov. 20, it became public when Radel appeared in D.C. court to plead guilty to charges that he possessed cocaine. While Radel was in rehab, his staff \u2014 many of them junior aides \u2014 kept his office afloat.<\/p>\n
Top Florida GOP leaders \u2014 including the governor and senior party officials \u2014 publicly called on Radel to resign. He ignored the calls, and returned to Washington at the beginning of January. The House Ethics Committee launched its own investigation of Radel \u2014 an inquest they\u2019ll now have to give up.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Trey-Radel-300x251.jpg\" "\\"Trey-Radel\\"")
<\/dt>\n- Rep Trey Radel<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Resignation Letter Rep. Trey Radel will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources. Radel was caught buying cocaine last year from an undercover federal agent in Washington and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":15604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}