BOISE, Idaho _Senator Craig, Republican of Idaho, will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men’s room, Republican officials said yesterday.

Mr. Craig will announce at a news conference in Boise this morning that he will resign effective Sept. 30, GOP officials in Idaho and Washington told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Word of the resignation came four days after the disclosure that Mr. Craig had pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge arising out of his June 11 arrest during a lewd-conduct investigation at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The three-term Republican senator had maintained that he did nothing wrong except for making the guilty plea without consulting a lawyer. But he found almost no support among Republicans in his home state or Washington.

Although several Republicans familiar with internal deliberations said that the Governor of Idaho, C.L. “Butch” Otter favored Lieutenant Governor Risch as a replacement, both Mr. Otter aides and Mr. Risch said no decision had been made.
“I have not been promised the job of U.S. senator, nor has there even been a hint that the governor would appoint me to that position,” Mr. Risch told the AP. “At this point in time, that discussion is very premature.”

Mark Warbis, a spokesman for Mr. Otter, said the governor would not comment until he hears from Mr. Craig.

Mr. Craig’s spokesman, Dan Whiting, had said earlier that the senator would announce his career plans today. The spokesman would not say whether Mr. Craig intended to resign.

Mr. Craig has been out of public view since Tuesday, when he declared defiantly at a Boise news conference: “I am not gay. I never have been gay.”

But Republican sources in Idaho said he spent Friday making calls to top party officials, including the governor, gauging their support.

There has been virtually none publicly.

Asked yesterday at the White House if the senator should resign, President Bush said nothing and walked off stage.

Republican officeholders and party leaders maintained a steady drumbeat of actions and words aimed at persuading Mr. Craig to vacate his Senate seat.

GOP lawmakers, hoping to get the embarrassment to the party behind them quickly, stripped Mr. Craig of leadership posts on Wednesday, one day after they called for an investigation of Craig’s actions by the Senate Ethics Committee. Mr. Craig complied with the request.

With his wife, Suzanne, at his side, Mr. Craig said he had kept the incident from aides, friends and family and later pleaded guilty “in hopes of making it go away.”

Mr. Craig, 62, has represented Idaho in Congress for more than a quarter-century and was up for re-election next year.

Republican officeholders and party leaders wanted Mr. Craig to give up his seat in the Senate as soon as possible. Their preference, according to several officials, was for a successor to be selected and ready to take the oath of office when the Senate returns from its summer vacation next week.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Mr. Craig’s conduct “unforgivable” and acknowledged that many in the rank and file thought Mr. Craig should resign.

Republicans, worried about the scandal’s effect on next year’s election, suffered a further setback Friday when veteran Senator Warner of Virginia announced he will retire rather than seek a sixth term. Democrats captured Virginia’s other Senate seat from the GOP in the 2006 election and have sought to line up former Gov. Mark Warner to run if the seat became open.

The contest for control of the next Senate was already tilted against Republicans, who must defend 22 of 34 seats on the ballot next year, before the Mr. Craig scandal and Warner’s announcement.

With a GOP candidate other than Craig, Republicans would stand a much better chance of keeping his Idaho seat in 2008. Idaho is one of the nation’s most reliably Republican states. The GOP controls the statehouse and all four seats in Congress, and Bush carried the state in 2004 with 68 percent of the vote.

Mr. Risch, the lieutenant governor, served for seven months as governor last year after Dirk Kempthorne, the former governor was named interior secretary. Mr. Risch had said earlier he was interested in Mr. Craig’s Senate seat if Mr. Craig did not seek re-election in 2008.
Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, also had been mentioned as a possible replacement for Mr. Craig, but the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because Mr. Craig has not resigned, said Mr. Otter would choose Mr. Risch.

Mr. Craig served in the House before winning his first Senate term in 1990 and compiled a strongly conservative voting record.

On Thursday, the Minneapolis airport authorities released a tape recording of Mr. Craig’s interrogation minutes after he encountered a plainclothes officer in an adjacent stall in an airport restroom.

Mr. Craig and airport police Sergeant Dave Karsnia disagreed about virtually everything that had occurred – including whether there was a piece of paper on the floor of the stall and the meaning of the senator’s hand gestures.
Mr. Craig denied that he had used foot and hand gestures to signal interest in a sexual encounter.

“I’m not gay. I don’t do these kinds of things,” Mr. Craig told the officer. “You shouldn’t be out to entrap people.”

Sergeant Karsnia accused Mr. Craig of lying and grew exasperated with his denials.

“Embarrassing, embarrassing. No wonder why we’re going down the tubes,” Karsnia said.

___

Daly reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Todd Dvorak in Boise and David Espo and Liz Sidoti in Washington contributed to this report.