The chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party is officially calling for Rep. Vance McAllister’s (R-La.) resignation, after a video of the congressman kissing a married staffer emerged earlier this week.
{mosads}GOP Chairman Roger Villere’s statement comes after The Hill reported he spent much of Tuesday night and Wednesday trying to reach McAllister to request his resignation, with no response.
McAllister’s chief of staff, Adam Terry, has said he has no plans to resign.
In his statement, Villere said that McAllister had “embarrassed” the GOP and Louisiana.
“Mr. McAllister’s extreme hypocrisy is an example of why ordinary people are fed up with politics. A breach of trust of this magnitude can only be rectified by an immediate resignation. He has embarrassed our party, our state and the institution of Congress,” he said.
He added: “I call on Mr. McAllister to put the interests of his nation, state and party above his own and step aside.”
Villere said after trying to resolve the issue in private with McAllister’s chief of staff he decided to go public with a statement after Terry publicly confirmed their conversations.
None of McAllister’s fellow members of Congress have yet called for his resignation, nor have any members of House Republican leadership.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday said he had spoken to McCallister and that the congressman had “decisions that he has to make,” but he did not call for him to step down.
“I expect all members to be held to the highest ethical standards, and this is no different,” Boehner told reporters when asked if he still had confidence in McCallister. “I have spoken to him, and he’s got decisions that he has to make.”
Still, the video has been damaging for the congressman, and resulted in many of his formal rivals from the 2013 special election that brought him to Congress to float launching rematches against him this cycle.
Russell Berman contributed to this report.
–This post was updated at 1:35 p.m.