Weller makes retirement official

Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) officially confirmed his retirement Friday afternoon after enduring a two-week barrage of negative publicity regarding his Central American land deals.

{mosads}Weller made the comments during a speech in his district. He said he and his wife of three years, Zury Rios-Montt de Weller, made the retirement decision this summer. He added that he wanted to be able to spend more time with her and their infant daughter after struggling to balance two full-time legislative careers.

Rios-Montt de Weller is a three-term member of the Guatemalan legislature who just won reelection to another four-year term.

“For the benefit of my family, I can no longer seek another term in the United States House of Representatives,” Weller said. “At this time, my wife, my child – my family – must come first.”

Weller said he had given half of his life to public service, a total of more than 25 years. In the early 1980s he served as a staff member for state representative Tom Corcoran, assistant to the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and an aide to Secretary of Agriculture John Block. In 1988 he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives where he served until 1994 when he was elected to Congress as part of the new GOP majority in the House that year.

 “I have been privileged to serve you, and I am still your congressman for the next 14 months. I look forward to continuing to work with you, but most of all, I am looking forward to being a fulltime father and a fulltime husband.”

Last year, the Chicago Reader reported that Weller had failed to report three parcels of land in Nicaragua that he purchased earlier that year, an omission that could amount to a violation of House ethics rules. Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune followed with its own investigation, which found several financial disclosure discrepancies on prices he listed and the number of transactions compared to Nicaraguan land records.