Patrick Moran, son of Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, has resigned from his father's reelection campaign.

"Effective immediately, I have resigned from the Moran for Congress campaign," Patrick Moran said in an email. The resignation follows the release of a near 27-minute video filmed in various locations in Arlington's Courthouse community in which the younger Moran apparently talks with someone posing as a supporter about skirting new voter identification laws.

The video was released by conservative activist James O'Keefe, whose work has been discredited in the past. In it, the videographer continuously prompts the younger Moran for advice on how best to "vote for" 100 names of inactive voters from Northern Virginia to Richmond. Moran, after suggesting his energy would be better spent on traditional — and legal — get-out-the-vote efforts, tells the man that he would need forged documents, such as utility bills, and that he should call the people, perhaps posing as a pollster, to make sure they aren't, in fact, going to vote.

A voice message and email to the Moran campaign was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday night, the campaign released the following statement:

"Patrick is well liked and was a well-respected member of the campaign team. This incident, however, was clearly an error in judgment. The campaign has accepted Patrick's resignation, effective immediately."

In a statement from Patrick Moran obtained by the Associated Press, Patrick Moran said he resigned because he didn't want to be a "distraction" during the upcoming election:

"At no point have I, or will I ever endorse any sort of illegal or unethical behavior. "At no point did I take this person seriously. He struck me as being unstable and joking, and for only that reason did I humor him. In hindsight, I should have immediately walked away, making it clear that there is no place in the electoral process for even the suggestion of illegal behavior, joking or not."