Rep. Christopher Lee resigns over flirtatious e-mails

Reporting from Washington —  Rep. Christopher Lee, a second-term Republican lawmaker representing western New York, abruptly resigned Wednesday after flirtatious e-mails, including a photo of him shirtless, were posted online by a gossip website.

In a brief statement, Lee referred only obliquely to “this distraction,” apologizing “deeply and sincerely” for harm he caused his family, staff and constituents.

Just hours earlier, the Gawker website posted e-mails Lee exchanged with an unnamed, single 34-year-old woman in response to her personal ad on Craigslist. In the e-mails, apparently sent from Lee’s personal account under his actual name, the married 46-year-old congressman claimed to be a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist. In the photo, he flexes a bicep.

Lee’s initial e-mail described him as “a very fit fun classy guy.” “I promise not to disappoint,” he wrote. The woman he contacted released the messages to Gawker after she searched for his name online and discovered he was not who he claimed to be.

“I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness,” Lee said in his statement. “The challenges we face in western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately.”

Lee’s office offered little explanation to Gawker, but said Lee had announced to his staff that his e-mail account had been hacked. His resignation statement offered no clues, but as he left the Capitol on Wednesday, the congressman told a Fox News reporter, “I have to work this out with my wife.”

Lee, who was an executive with a multinational manufacturing company, had little political experience before his election to Congress in 2008.

He was wooed into the open-seat race in New York’s 26th Congressional District by state and national Republican leaders in part because of his willingness to spend personal funds on the campaign.

He won in the traditionally Republican district even as Democrats boosted their congressional majority on the coattails of a Barack Obama victory. During the Republican wave of 2010, Lee was reelected with 74% of the vote. In his brief career, he was known for focusing on fiscal issues and government accountability.

The office of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) declined to comment.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, may now call a special election to fill the vacancy, the second in the state in a matter of months. A vacancy in the neighboring 29th Congressional District was filled in November after Democrat Eric Massa resigned over allegations that he sexually harassed members of his staff. A Republican succeeded Massa and a Republican is likely to take Lee’s seat.

In just the second month of the 112th Congress, Lee becomes the second representative to quit the House. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) on Tuesday announced her resignation to accept a leadership position with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

michael.memoli@latimes.com