Disgraced Indiana Rep. Mark Souder resigned this week in the wake of the news of his affair with a female staffer. Souder just won a tough primary for his seat… which is now going to a special election, as there CLEARLY haven’t been enough of those this year. The date hasn’t been determined yet.

State Sen. Marlin Stutzman announced today that he was jumping into the race to replace Souder. Stutzman just lost to Dan Coats in the primary for Evan Bayh’s seat in the Senate, and will be shifting gears to get himself into the House. His anticipated competitors for the vacated seat are “state Representative Randy Borror, Fort Wayne City Council member Liz Brown, car dealer Bob Thomas and other Republicans.”

An interesting dynamic here. He obviously has some pretty heightened name recognition as a result of the Senate primary, and also has some cash left over from the last election – admittedly not a lot, but some. This provides him with a clear advantage, given the expected challengers. The district is a +14 Republican district, which overlaps with the district that Stutzman serves as a state Senator.

Glad to see Stutzman have another shot at getting to DC. This could be good.