State Sen. Scott Ogan, facing an angry effort to recall him from office, resigned suddenly Wednesday, saying the turmoil "adversely affects my daily activities as a senator."

 The Lazy Mountain Republican, who lost a court bid this week to kill the recall effort, sent Gov. Frank Murkowski a letter notifying him of his resignation, effective at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

 His letter cited the "uncertainty and distraction" surrounding by the recall as compromising to his ability to represent his constituents.

"A statesman must put the best interest of the state before his own self-interest," Ogan wrote. "All elected officials must realize that they are replaceable and that our system of government will continue to function without them."

 Ogan, who has been in the Legislature since 1994, was not taking calls at home, a family member said Wednesday evening.

 "The stress and the pressure of fighting an election between now and November ... it's not pleasant," said his attorney, Tom Amodio. "It's even less pleasant going through the election. Even if he retained his seat, it would always be tainted in some people's eyes."

 The recall effort against him was the first against a sitting legislator in Alaska history.

 A group of Mat-Su residents calling themselves the Ogan is So Gone Committee wanted voters to decide Nov. 2 whether Ogan should be removed. They asserted he worked harder for his former employer, gas company Evergreen Resources Inc., than for his constituents. They also accused him of depriving Mat-Su residents of public notice on gas leases.

 Recall committee member Bill Marks, a Willow retiree, expressed conflicted emotions about the resignation.

 The public deserved to decide if Ogan was wrong to take a total of about $100,000 from Evergreen and get involved with legislation that boosted the company's interest, Marks said.

 But he said he also never intended for Ogan to lose his job with a family to support.

 "I've got mixed feelings," Marks said. "It's never been personal."

 The governor's office had little to say Wednesday about the resignation. "We received his resignation and we thank him for his service," said Mike Chambers, a Murkowski spokesman. "Beyond that we have no further comment."

 Murkowski will get to appoint a replacement state senator to fill the final two years of Ogan's term. It will be the third member of the 20-member Senate to be picked by Murkowski because a seat opened up.

 Republicans in Ogan's district -- a broad area including Peters Creek, Chugiak, Willow and Butte -- will recommend names to the governor, who has 30 days from Wednesday to make a choice.

 Senate President Gene Therriault, a North Pole Republican, said he didn't find out about the resignation until Ogan called him around 6 p.m. But he also said that Ogan had spoken with him "numerous times" about the possibility of quitting.

 "I just cautioned him to take some time and make a reasoned decision," Therriault said, "a decision that would be good for his personal life."

 Therriault said he thought Ogan was worried about what fighting the recall would do to his health and his family.

 Ogan suffered a near fatal heart attack March 2002 while home for a visit. A group of neighbors, one of them an emergency medical technician, administered CPR. Medics who arrived had to shock his heart five times before it began beating again.

 In 2001, Ogan developed a blood clot in his leg during an airplane trip on state business to Washington, D.C. The blood clot put him in the hospital, and his leg hasn't been the same since. He often propped it on a chair during legislative committee meetings to stimulate blood flow.

 Fighting the recall effort would also be expensive. Ogan would not have been allowed to use campaign funds left over from past campaigns, according to state rules covering recall elections. He would have had to create a whole new war chest before November.

 A cabinetmaker by trade, Ogan took a $40,000-a-year consulting job with Denver-based Evergreen in 2001. Five years earlier, Ogan had co-sponsored legislation in 1996 that opened the door in Alaska for coal bed methane development, Evergreen's specialty.

 Evergreen's proposal to explore for methane on nearly 300,000 acres across the Mat-Su raised an uproar last summer over perceived threats to drinking water and property rights.

 One bill became a flash point of the controversy: House Bill 69, written by Wasilla Republican Vic Kohring, which allowed the state to override local regulation of methane operations and reduced public notice. Ogan declared a conflict of interest and then voted for the bill -- a vote that was required by legislative protocol. The vote was a central issue in the recall petition.

 Amid conflict-of-interest allegations, Ogan resigned from Evergreen last fall, saying the controversy generated by his dual jobs as legislator and consultant made it impossible for him to do either.

 Therriault said Ogan will be remembered in the Senate as fiercely pro-development and a stickler for the state constitution. He said he thinks at least some of the accusations against Ogan were groundless.

 "Certainly in looking back in having the consulting contract, it didn't turn out to be worth it," Therriault said. "Whether he would do things differently -- if he could wind back time -- or not, I'm not sure."

 Ogan also sent a copy of the letter Wednesday to Lori Camron, executive director of the Energy Council, a Texas-based legislative organization of 10 states and four international affiliates that Ogan chairs.

 Another recall committee member, Ed Tompkins, who is also a neighbor of Ogan's on Lazy Mountain, said he wanted voters to get the chance to show what they really thought.

 For Ogan, however, resigning is probably a better strategy than enduring a recall, he said. "I'm sure no one wants to be the first recalled senator in the history of Alaska."

 Pollster Dave Dittman said that several weeks ago he polled in the area on how Ogan would fare in a recall election.

 "At that time, the mood on whether he should be recalled or not was almost evenly split," Dittman said, not saying who commissioned the poll.

 He said while it appeared Ogan could have survived if he ran a good campaign, the specter of a recall election was taking its toll.

 "When I have seen him and talked to him, I could just see it was wearing on him," Dittman said.

Daily News reporter Zaz Hollander can be reached at zhollander@adn.com. Reporter Sean Cockerham can be reached at scockerham@adn.com.