Two more members of the House have announced their resignation, both with the purpose of focusing solely on their gubernatorial campaigns.

The resignation of Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a 10-term Democrat, became official on Sunday, and this morning, as expected, he filed papers to run for governor. He will face Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann in the Sept. 18 primary. Both Abercrombie and Hannemann have run against each other before.

GOP Gov. Linda Lingle is term limited; Republicans are likely to nominate Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona.

There will be a special election on May 22 to fill Abercrombie's House seat. Running in that one are former Rep. Ed Case and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, both Democrats, and Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou, a Republican.

The other resignation was a surprise. Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) announced today that he will leave Congress next Monday to "devote my full energies to the campaign for governor." Deal was first elected to Congress in 1992 as a Democrat and switched to the GOP in 1995. He joins a very crowded July 20 Republican primary field in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Sonny Perdue.

But with Deal leaving — on top of the departures of Abercrombie, Robert Wexler and John Murtha — Democrats now need just 216 votes to pass health care legislation in the House. And with Deal a definite vote against the plan, some conservatives are not pleased. Erick Erickson, blogging at RedState, says Deal's departure "means the Democrats have one less vote they have to struggle to get to pass health care. Nathan Deal decided to make it all about himself and in the process is making it easier for Democrats to pass Obamacare and harder for Georgia to save money. ... At a time that every vote counts on health care, Deal resigning means the Democrats have one less vote they have to pick up to take over 1/6th of our economy." (Erickson supports former Ga. Secretary of State Karen Handel for the GOP gov. nomination; she too left her post to focus on her gubernatorial campaign.)

An ethics investigation into Deal's business dealings could be at work here as well, wonders the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Deal has been the subject of two inquiries by congressional investigators into his role in a business with the state that earned his company $1.5 million from 2004 through 2008. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in August that Deal and a business partner obtained the lucrative state business without competition and that Deal personally intervened with state officials to fight proposed changes to the operation.

Deal denied any wrongdoing in his business dealings.

Asked Monday whether his resignation had anything to do with a House ethics investigation, Deal said, "That's absolutely not true."

Tags: On The Ballot