WASHINGTON — President Obama announced on Tuesday that he would nominate Representative John M. McHugh of upstate New York, the senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, to be the next secretary of the Army.

The nomination will give Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, a Republican voice at the Pentagon. Mr. McHugh’s resignation from Congress will also mean a second special House election in New York, where Democrats this spring held on to a Republican-leaning seat left vacate by Kirsten Gillibrand’s appointment to the Senate.

Full Story