Here’s a sobering bit of news from Tennessee: A state lawmaker who sponsored legislation allowing gun owners to carry firearms in bars resigned on Monday as chairman of the House State and Local Government committee following his DUI arrest with a gun.
“Today, I told Speaker Harwell (R) that I would step aside as Chairman of the House State and Local Government Committee until this matter is resolved and she has accepted it,” Rep. Curry Todd (R) said in a statement. “The Committee’s work is an important aspect of the General Assembly and I do not want my actions to distract from that.”
The committee handles most of the state’s alcohol bills, the Associated Press reports. Speaker Beth Harwell said in a statement she appreciates Todd’s “willingness to step aside so that we may focus on legislative business.”
Todd was arrested last week with a loaded .38 caliber gun next to the driver’s seat. According to the police affidavit, Todd was “very unsteady on his feet” and almost falling down at times.
A spokesman for the Tennessee House majority did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for further comment, but Harwell told the AP she does not expect Todd to resign from the legislature altogether.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam spoke to Todd after a charity golf event Monday, the AP reports, and Todd said he “made a bad mistake and I’m sorry.”
Read more here.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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