GOP Congressman decision to resign at end of year further complicates the Republicans efforts to try to regain control of the House in November.

From The New York Times:

Representative Thomas M. Reynolds, a five-term Republican legislator from the Buffalo area and perhaps the most influential New Yorker in the House until his party lost control of the chamber, said on Thursday that he would step down at the end of the year.

The decision by Mr. Reynolds, 57, who was nearly defeated in 2006 and was bracing for another tough re-election fight this year, further complicates the Republican Party’s efforts to try to regain control of the House in November.

In addition, Mr. Reynolds, a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, has come under intense criticism from Democrats because the treasurer of the committee under his chairmanship is being investigated in connection with the embezzlement of several hundred thousand dollars.

In making the announcement of his departure plan on Thursday in Williamsville, a suburb of Buffalo, Mr. Reynolds acknowledged that his decision had been strongly influenced by the difficult electoral climate that his party is facing this fall. A savvy politician who measures his words carefully, Mr. Reynolds said that it was “time to face reality.”

Mr. Reynolds, at one time considered a possible speaker of the House, is the 29th Republican member of the House to announce retirement plans since the party lost power in the 2006 election. The retirements underscore the low morale among Republicans heading into a presidential election and saddled with an unpopular war and a troubled economy.