Golf balls handed out at the Americans For Self-Rule launch on Tuesday. (Photo via Twitter)

Golf balls handed out at the Americans For Self-Rule launch on Tuesday. (Photo via Twitter)

As a local D.C. news blog, it may seem odd to spend so much digital space on the congressman from Utah’s third district. But many District residents find it even stranger that Jason Chaffetz spends so much of his time on the Hill trying to control the policies of a jurisdiction he does not represent.

Now, it looks like Chaffetz will have more time to go to all of the D.C. Council hearings he has been invited to—he is not seeking election in 2018.

“After long consultation with my family and prayerful consideration, I have decided I will not be a candidate for any office in 2018,” he writes in a Facebook post. “After more than 1,500 nights away from my home, it is time. I may run again for public office, but not in 2018 … I have made a personal decision to return to the private sector.”

The news, first reported by Buzzfeed, comes less than 24 hours after Americans For Self-Rule, a PAC of D.C. residents targeting Chaffetz, hosted its official kick-off party last night. Americans For Self-Rule already has more than $20,000 in its war chest, according to founder Lynette Craig.

“It’s great news but kinda takes some of the wind out of my sails,” says Craig. “Guess we gotta find another opponent to focus on.”

While D.C. residents are salty with Chaffetz for his meddling in our city when it comes to same-sex marriage, medical marijuana, medical aid in dying, and more, his actual constituents have raised concerns about what he’s doing with his role as the chair of the House Oversight Committee.

“Do your job!” constituents screamed at Chaffetz during a raucous town hall in February, which he later said, without a shred of evidence, was packed with paid protesters from outside his district.

At least one person who had announced a primary run against Chaffetz, attorney Damian Kidd, has pledged not to interfere with D.C. affairs should he win the seat.

Aside from the dig at Chaffetz’s well-documented love of Five Guys, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen also says in a statement that the news “doesn’t change the bigger picture—another congressional representative from somewhere else in America will assume the committee chair and have the same ability to interfere with locally passed laws by locally elected representatives. DC residents will remain committed to stopping Congressional meddling and are serious about saying Hands Off DC.”

Ward 1’s Brianne Nadeau, who had a name plate made for Chaffetz, took a more optimistic tack. “I am hopeful that with the departure of Congressman Chaffetz, the District will return to its long tradition of a productive relationship with the chair of the Congressional Oversight Committee, and that the committee will return its focus to the troubling issues related to the current Presidential administration,” she says in a statement provided to DCist.

Updated with comment from Charles Allen and Brianne Nadeau.

Filed Under: americans for self-rule, jason chaffetz, meanwhile on capitol hill,