Kent Sorenson, a Republican first elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2008 and then to the Iowa Senate in 2010, has resigned in response to a report resulting from an ethics investigation into his relationship with the Bachmann Presidential campaign.
The Senate Ethics Committee has been looking into Sorenson's behavior relating to accepting inappropriate contributions from the Bachmann campaign, and the results aren't looking pretty.
Sorenson had worked as the campaign chairman for the Bachmann campaign, but later defected to the Ron Paul camp, causing a significant stir.
The Des Moines Register has the breaking story:
BREAKING: Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson resigns after report finds he received money from Bachmann campaign
Update: Sorenson has put an announcement of his resignation on his Facebook page. In it, he maintains his innocence and denounces the ethics investigation as a "witch hunt" and notes that checking into the investigator reveals that they only donated politically to Democrats in the past (the obvious implication being that this is a politically motivated hit job).
He also states
"But I did not do anything illegal. I never did anything that was against the Iowa Senate Ethics Rules as they are written."
Which is interesting phraseology, in my mind, because it brings to mind the idea of "following the letter of the law, but not the spirit".
Anyway, 'twill be interesting to see how the full investigation plays out on this.
Edit: Correction to some minor typos.