(WNBC News) WASHINGTON -- Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli abruptly dropped his re-election bid Monday -- just five weeks before Election Day -- after a bruising year marked by ethics questions and an admonishment by his colleagues.

"In a strange irony of life, control of the Democratic majority of the U.S. Senate is at issue. I am the issue," an emotional Torricelli said. "I could not stand the pain if any failing on my part would do damage to the things, the people that I have fought for all my life."

Torricelli said he spoke with Gov. James E. McGreevey, New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine and former President Clinton before making his decision.

"I will not be responsible for the loss of the Democratic majority of the U.S. Senate. I will not let it happen. There is just too much at issue," Torricelli said.

The news threw New Jersey's Senate race into chaos. Torricelli's woes have troubled Democratic strategists for months as they struggle to maintain the party's single-seat majority in the Senate.

Torricelli, 51, who was seeking a second term, spent all day talking with party leaders about possible replacements and researching the legal issues involved in getting a new candidate on the Nov. 5 ballot.

McGreevey said the state party officials will make a decision on a replacement within 48 hours.

Party officials were considering a list of possible candidates including former Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bill Bradley and current House members Bob Menendez, Frank Pallone and Rob Andrews, according to sources in Washington and New Jersey.

An associate said it was unlikely Bradley would accept. A source close to Lautenberg said he would run if asked by McGreevey, a fellow Democrat.

A source close to Menendez said leading Democrats in New Jersey and in Washington have urged the lawmaker to take Torricelli's place in the Senate race, but that Menendez has not made a decision.

About half of New Jersey's 21 counties have already printed ballots.

Republicans said they would contest any effort to have a substitute candidate take his place, arguing that it is barred by state law so close to an election. According to GOP lawyers, the only exception acknowledged by a court has been in the case of the death of a nominee.

"This is a cynical attempt by party bosses to manipulate democracy," said Mitch Bainwol, executive director of the Senate GOP campaign committee.

Democrats in turn cited a state law that they said would allow a replacement to be put on the ballot if a candidate died or resigned more than 30 days before the election.

Under New Jersey law, a political party also can replace a statewide nominee on the ballot if the person drops out at least 48 days before the election. But only 36 days remain until the election, meaning Democrats would have to seek approval from the state attorney general.

That would likely result in a court challenge from Republicans.

Torricelli was elected to replace Bradley, the former basketball star who later ran for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination and lost to Al Gore. Torricelli and Lautenberg served together in the Senate as Democrats, but often were at loggerheads.

Torricelli was admonished over the summer by the Senate ethics committee, which investigated allegations that he had accepted gifts from a campaign contributor, a businessman that the lawmaker aided.

Torricelli swiftly launched an effort to apologize to the state's voters, but his Republican rival, Doug Forrester, has capitalized on the issue.

A weekend poll gave Forrester a lead of 13 percentage points over the Democratic incumbent. Torricelli's support was only 34 percent among those surveyed. In June, the same poll, the Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers survey showed Torricelli with a 14-point lead.

Torricelli was elected to his seat in 1996, and quickly made clear his leadership ambitions. He helped raise more than $100 million for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as its chairman in the last election cycle.

That was before businessman David Chang's allegations of illegal gift-giving began to take a toll.

Seven people pleaded guilty to making illegal donations to Torricelli's campaign in 1996. Chang told investigators he gave the senator Italian suits and a $8,100 Rolex watch, among other gifts, in return for Torricelli's intervention in business deals in North and South Korea.

Torricelli has denied any illegality or violations of Senate rules.

The government investigated the allegations against the senator, but brought no charges. But the ethics committee issued its admonishment, and Torricelli's poll numbers began dropping rapidly.

Last week, one of New York's largest TV stations, WNBC, ran a 38-minute, commercial-free news special entitled "The Prisoner and the Politician" that reviewed all of Chang's allegations against Torricelli and documents investigators obtained to substantiate them.

Even if Democrats jettison Torricelli's ethics problems, they would miss his proven fund-raising skills.

Torricelli had nearly $6.1 million in the bank as of June 30 and has pledged to raise $15 million for his re-election bid. Under federal election rules, Torricelli could not transfer his remaining millions to a successor candidate.

He could, however, give the balance of his excess campaign funds to the national or state parties, which could use them to try to help keep the seat in Democratic control. Both national parties have already spent lavishly on television ads to try to influence the New Jersey campaign.