The Real Reason Ney Dropped Out

Bob Ney says that the reason he dropped out of his re-election bid is due to the stress on his family, and there is a lot of truth to that, but that stress wasn't being applied nearly as firmly by the media as it was by Majority Leader John Boehner.

Several republicans had asked Ney to leave the race to no avail, but Boehner has the ability to issue threats to Ney, ones he could very easily make due on. From The Washington Post:

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) met with Ney last week to urge him to step aside, reminding him that with a son in college and a daughter nearing college age, he will need money, according to several congressional Republican aides. If he lost his House seat for the party, Boehner is said to have cautioned, Ney could not expect a lucrative career on K Street to pay those tuition bills, along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees piling up.

Personally, I'm not sure how powerful the licence plate manufacturing lobby is, but I know they don't get up to the Hill too often, tending to prefer to work out of a hotel of sorts.