DeLay to Leave Congress

April 4, 2006— -- After months of growing scandal, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is expected to formally announce today that he will not seek re-election to Congress.

DeLay, known as "the Hammer," is likely to leave Congress by the end of May.

The expected resignation would be an abrupt finale for one of Capitol Hill's most polarizing politicians. In September 2005, a Texas grand jury indicted DeLay on charges of breaking campaign finance laws, and he gave up his post as House majority leader.

Last week, DeLay's former deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, admitting to selling influence to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who earlier had pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to corrupt public officials.

Even on the way out, DeLay took swipes at Democrats and declared in a video statement released late Monday, "I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign."

DeLay, who was first elected to the House in 1984, resigned in large part due to a too-close-for-comfort re-election campaign, political analysts said. Some polls have shown DeLay in a dead heat with his opponent, even though he won the Republican primary.

"He was in dire trouble in his own congressional district in Houston. He feared he would lose that seat. He didn't want to go down that way," said George Stephanopoulos, ABC News Washington correspondent and anchor of "This Week."

DeLay has said that prosecutors have assured him that he will not be prosecuted, but two aides have already been implicated and authorities are closing in on another, Stephanopoulos said. The legal trouble leads to political trouble and DeLay feared that remaining in the race would hurt his party, Stephanopoulos said.