Iowa Republican Party chair Matt Strawn announced his resignation this week after calls earlier this month for him to leave the position.

Strawn faced criticism from across the state after problems with the certified results of the ever-so-close Republican Caucus.

Eight counties were never certified, meaning the true winner of the Caucus may never be known. Strawn initially refused to officially declare Rick Santorum the winner because of the discrepancy, though he later relented. Santorum sprang ahead of initially declared winner Mitt Romney after the certified results were released.

The fact Strawn refused to declare a winner, more than the counting problems, was the final straw for Craig Robinson, a prominent player in the party and founder of the Iowa Republican news website. Robinson was among the first to call for Strawn's resignation.

The Des Moines Register reported Strawn cited competing priorities in his personal, business and political life in a letter he wrote to the Iowa Republican Party.

The Register also reports:

GOP party rules say that any vacancy in the chairman job is to be filled by the co-chairman – and in this case, that’s Bill Schickel, a well-liked former state lawmaker and former party secretary from Mason City. The next meeting of the GOP central committee, the party’s board of directors, is Feb. 11.