UPDATE....

Rep. Mark Walker took a bullet for Utah's Grand Ol' Party. Walker faced an ethics probe into Treasurer's election tricks that threatened to expose all sorts of GOP shenanigans.

... I must resign because I find myself in the crossfire of a political battle that seems to have an intensity completely unrelated to me or anything I have done.

Well, not entirely unrelated. Walker is accused of offering deputy treasurer Richard Ellis a job and a raise if he would drop out of the race. But his resignation stops the probe because, hey, he's no longer a member of the Legislature.

Even though Walker's ethics investigation would have been tightly controlled by House leaders, at the very least it would have brought more bad publicity to a party already suffering from an image problem of arrogance and high-handed law making.

A slim to none chance remains that the ethics probe could resume if three new complaints are signed by House members, naming other legislators involved in the Walker incident. After the heat Walker's accusers took — don't bet on it.

Walker still faces a probe by two county attorneys into whether the state's bribery laws were violated.