New Jersey lieutenant governor resigns after release of damaging ethics report

Sherrill announced the resignation at a press conference, saying Caldwell submitted it that afternoon and she accepted it. Caldwell did not appear at the announcement. The report came from a law firm the state hired to investigate his conduct and found evidence of sexual harassment.

Sherrill, also a Democrat, had called for Caldwell's resignation a day earlier after the report went public. In a statement Thursday, she said his conduct was a clear ethics violation.

The resignation leaves New Jersey without a sitting lieutenant governor and puts Sherrill's administration in the position of managing fallout from a scandal involving her own second in command. Barely a year into her term, she pushed out a member of her own party, a move that carries political cost regardless of how the vacancy gets filled.