Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon resigned his seat late Wednesday, making him the fourth member of Congress to quit this year in the wake of a sex scandal. THE resignation of Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon officially went into effect at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night. He stepped down after he was accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser’s daughter. Wu announced last week he would resign but postponed his formal resignation until after the House voted on the debt-ceiling bill Monday. According to a statement released Wednesday, Wu notified Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and House Speaker John Boehner of his resignation effective Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. “Serving as a U.S. Congressman has been the greatest honor of my life,” Wu said in his handwritten letter to the governor. “There is no other job where you get up each day and ask, ‘How can I try to make the world a better place today?’” Last month, Portland newspaper The Oregonian reported that the daughter of one of Wu’s fund-raisers accused him of making unwanted sexual advances in May. Citing anonymous sources from inside the Congressman’s office, The Oregonian said the woman, whom it declined to name, left a voice mail message at Wu’s Portland office alleging aggressive advances. According to the newspaper, the woman was 18 when the alleged incident took place in November, and it was never reported to police. The newspaper said Wu acknowledged the incident, which occurred over Thanksgiving in Orange County, but said it was consensual. ABC News reported that the woman graduated from high school in 2010, according to her Facebook page. With House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi seeking an ethics investigation after that news and calls for his resignation mounting back home, the Congressman’s spokesman said last week that he would not seek re-election and was “considering all options” regarding the rest of his term. A day later, Wu announced he would step down. “I cannot care for my family the way I wish while serving in Congress and fighting these very serious allegations,” Wu said then. “The well-being of my children must come before anything else.” Wu becomes the latest in a long line of politicians from both parties to become caught up in sex scandals over the years, and the second House Democrat since June to have his tenure cut short by such a controversy. New York Representative Anthony Weiner resigned in June after he admitted lying about sending lewd photos of himself to women over the Internet. The 56-year-old Congressman, who separated from his wife in 2009, disclosed in February that he had sought “professional medical care” after dealing with campaign stress, his responsibilities as a single father and his father’s death. The Oregonian reported that campaign aides had confronted him about his erratic behavior and use of medication during his 2010 re-election bid. “I fully acknowledge that I could have dealt with these difficult circumstances better, and I remain focused on being a good father to my children and a strong representative for the people of Oregon,” he said at the time. Wu’s Portland-area district is heavily Democratic, and he won each of his races by double-digit margins. Rep. Steve Israel, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said his party has long dominated elections in Oregon’s first Congressional district, adding that “a Democrat has held this seat in Congress since 1975. Senator John Kerry won this district in 2004 and President Barack Obama won it with 63 percent in 2008. Wu’s resignation will prompt a special election to fill the vacancy in advance of the 2012 election. A child of immigrants from Taiwan, Wu was the first Chinese-American to serve in the House of Representatives. Wu was born in Hsinchu, Taiwan. His parents were from Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. The family moved to the United States in 1961. Wu spent his first two years in the United States in Latham, New York, where his family were the only Asian-Americans in town. Wu received a bachelor’s degree in science from Stanford University in 1977 and attended Harvard Medical School for a time, sharing an apartment with future-United States Senator Bill Frist. Wu did not complete his medical studies. Instead, he attended Yale Law School where he was awarded a Juris Doctorate degree in 1982. Next, he served as a clerk for a federal judge and then co-founded the law firm of Cohen & Wu. The firm focused on representing clients in Oregon’s high-tech development sector, centered on “Silicon Forest.” Wu was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, succeeding Democrat Elizabeth Furse. He narrowly defeated Republican Molly Bordonaro by a little over 7,100 votes. He won re-election in 2000, defeating state senator Charles Starr in the November election with 58 percent of the vote to 39 percent for Starr. Wu won re-election in 2004 over Republican Goli Ameri; in 2006 over Oregon state representative Derrick Kitts and two minor party candidates; and in 2008 with no Republican candidate running, he captured 71 percent of the votes to win a sixth term over four minor party candidates. He faced his most difficult re-election test in 2010, defeating Republican challenger Rob Cornilles with 54 percent of the votes. Wu married Michelle Maxine Wu in 1996, and they have two children. In December 2009, he filed for separation from his wife, citing irreconcilable differences. Three weeks prior to the 2004 elections, The Oregonian published an article reporting that Wu had been accused of sexually assaulting an ex-girlfriend while attending Stanford. Stanford made Wu attend counseling, and he was disciplined by the university in 1976. Criminal charges were never filed, but the story prompted Wu to hold a press conference apologizing for “inexcusable behavior.” In February 2011, Willamette Week and later The Oregonian reported that, in the run-up to the November 2010 election, Wu began behaving erratically and that staffers “demanded he enter a hospital for psychiatric treatment.” The strange behavior that triggered some of his staff to depart was reported to be no single incident but rather a pattern of behavior that included Wu’s e-mailing his staff photos of himself in a tiger suit. After Wu won re-election, at least six of his staff left, including his longtime chief of staff and his communications director. The Oregonian has reported that a campaign contributor gave Wu a prescription painkiller, identified by the staffer present as oxycodone to help alleviate an episode of severe neck pain. Willamette Week quoted the donor as saying the pills were ibuprofen. Wu has admitted taking the painkiller, saying that it was an act of bad judgment, but claiming that he did not know what it was. | 