WASHINGTON - Saying he wants to spend more time with family, U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin announced Monday he will not seek a third term in Congress.

Griffin, a Republican from Little Rock, represents the 2nd Congressional District in central Arkansas.

The announcement came as a surprise to many in politics. Griffin was recentlynamed to a powerful House committee that writes tax law and, at only 45, he was seen by some in national politics as a rising star of the Republican Party. He had already raised half a million dollars for his 2014 campaign.

Griffin said he is leaving Washington to focus on raising his two young children.

Signs of Griffin’s children linger around his Capitol Hill office. Drawings from Mary Katherine Griffin, 6, cover much of the walls, including a sign in childlike marker scrawl pointing the way to “Tim Griffin’s office.” During the shutdown, John Griffin III, 3, joined his father on the House floor and cast votes on behalf of several representatives. A photo of House Speaker John Boehner tickling the boy after a vote appeared in national media outlets soon after.

“My family is the reason for this, I’ve said that repeatedly,” Griffin said. “This is not an easy decision, but it’s the right one.”

He and his wife, Elizabeth, have discussed the change for the past eight months, but he made the final decision Friday, Griffin said.

He said he currently has no plans to run for another political office, but may seek another position one day.

A former aide to President George W. Bush and a former interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Griffin is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

Announcing the decision in October, and before a Democratic challenger emerges, gave potential GOP candidates as much time as Democrats to fund-raise, Griffin said.

He pointed to former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder’s retirement announcement in mid-January 2010, which Griffin said left Democrats scrambling to find a candidate who could match the hundreds of thousands of dollars Griffin had already raised for that campaign.

“If I were to wait until February, the other side would have organized a campaign. A potential Republican successor would have a disadvantage. I didn’t want to to do that,” Griffin said. “Once I made this decision, I needed to get out of the way.”

With Griffin stepping down, Republicans and Democrats are promising the seat will be hotly contested.

Former North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays said Monday that he’s running for the Democratic nomination in the 2nd congressional district.

Former state Rep. Linda Tyler, D-Conway said she’s still weighing whether to run for Congress or state Senate.

A spokesman for Bill Halter of North Little Rock, who departed the governors’ race in July, said supporters are urging the former Democratic lieutenant governor run for Congress, but no decision has been made.

People also are encouraging Little Rock banker French Hill, a Republican, to drop his state House race and instead run for Congress, his spokesman said.

Other candidates may emerge, according to State Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb. Webb said he has a list of 15 possible 2nd district candidates, but they need time to assess their potential support. He declined to disclose their names.

State Sen. Jason Rapert, a Republican from Bigelow, said he’s going to talk to his advisers and family about running and he’ll make a decision in the next few days.

He said the president of Washington, D.C-based GOPAC, David Avella, encouraged him to run for Congress.

Avella said he encouraged Rapert to consider running for Congress and he’ll encourage other state lawmakers to consider that option if they call him, noting that GOPAC encourages state lawmakers to aim for Capitol Hill.

Avella added that state Sens. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and David Sanders, R-Little Rock, might be looking at running for the GOP nomination for Congress, too.

Dismang declined to comment about his plans until he talks to his wife and they “see what the possibilities are.”

Sanders said he’s not considering running for Congress.

“My place is in Arkansas - not Washington, D.C.,” he said.

Saline County Judge Lanny Fite, a Benton Republican, said he might drop his state House campaign and run for Congress instead.

Other Republicans said state Rep. Allen Kerr, R-Little Rock, might seek the congressional seat, but Kerr said he’s ruled out that option.

The 2nd District was once a Democratic stronghold. But in 2010, Griffin defeated state Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, with 59 percent of the vote to become the third Republican to hold the central Arkansas District since Reconstruction. In 2012, Griffin was re-elected over Little Rock attorney Herb Rule with 55 percent of the vote.

Griffin is a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and is assistant majority whip. His staff said they learned over the weekend that Griffin wouldn’t run again.

Arkansas’ other Republican delegates each released a statement praising Griffin’s work on behalf of the state, as did Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-MI, and the National Republican Congressional Committee, where Griffin serves as vice chairman for communications and strategy in the 2014 election.

U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Dardanelle, called Griffin “a strong leader.” U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Rogers, said Griffin is a “dependable steward of Arkansas values.”

Webb also praised Griffin’s service.

“He has been a trailblazer in fighting to protect the citizens of the 2nd District from the negative impacts of Obamacare, as well as a strong advocate for small businesses in the state from the unfair burden of overreaching federal regulation,” he said in a statement.

Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, the titular head of his party, said the announcement came out of nowhere.

“I was surprised… it was a well-kept secret,” he said.

The state and national Democratic parties had focused on Griffin in the past few months with protests outside of his Little Rock office and a barrage of news releases criticizing Griffin’s House votes.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein said Griffin’s exit opens the door for Democrats to try to win back a House seat.

“This is a seat that Democrats can win, and Congressman Griffin’s retirement makes it even more competitive,” he said.

Monday, Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Vincent Insalaco tied Griffin’s announcement to the shutdown of the federal government.

“It is no surprise that Tim Griffin saw the writing on the wall and figured out that Arkansans were going to hold him accountable for the dysfunction in Washington,” he said in a statement.

After Griffin’s vote in favor of ending the government shutdown, conservative group Americans for Limited Government criticized him as well, saying the vote allowed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to go forward. The group sent out similar news releases for every member of Arkansas’ House delegation, all of whom voted in favor.

“Griffin now owns Obamacare just as much as if it had been a vote to adopt it in the first place. There is no running away from that fact,” Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens said in a news release. “When it counted, Rep. Griffin was nowhere to be found in the fight to defund Obamacare.”

In his most recent campaign finance report, released Oct. 15, Griffin reported raising $211,178 in the third quarter of 2013, giving him $540,176 on hand.

Monday, the congressman said it is too early to know where the money will go. Griffin said some will go to pay existing campaign bills and staff salaries, and some may be returned to donors or given to charity.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/22/2013