Wisconsin

Randy Hopper, After DUI Arrest: 'Don't Ever Run For Office'

Eric Kleefeld | October 19, 2011, 11:29AM

Former State Sen. Randy Hopper, Booking Photo

More details have emerged of the arrest this past weekend of former Wisconsin state Sen. Randy Hopper on a drunk-driving charge. Hopper, a Republican, was defeated this past August in recall elections stemming from Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union legislation.

Hopper was pulled over into a grocery store parking lot, after witnesses reported seeing him almost cause a head-on collision. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports that officers administered a field sobriety test -- in which Hopper could not keep his balance, and did not correctly recite the order of the alphabet, and then declined to take a breath test.

During the ride in the squad car on the way to the county jail, Hopper tried to start a conversation with the arresting officer, Deputy Nicholas Venne:

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Curry Todd

Tennessee Guns-In-Bars Law Sponsor Resigns Committee Post Following DUI Arrest

David Taintor | October 18, 2011, 11:58AM

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."

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Wisconsin

Recalled Ex-State Senator Arrested For DUI In Wisconsin

Eric Kleefeld | October 17, 2011, 12:43PM

Former State Sen. Randy Hopper, Booking Photo

Former Wisconsin state Sen. Randy Hopper, a Republican who was defeated this past August in recall elections stemming from Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union legislation, was arrested Sunday night on a charge of drunk driving.

From the Fond du Lac Reporter

Officers were called to Highway 151 near County Trunk WH about 5:30 p.m. Sunday for a report of a black Suburban "all over the road," according to dispatch logs.

Officers stopped the vehicle and Hopper, 45, the driver, was arrested. He was held in the Fond du Lac County Jail for 12 hours and released early today, said Sgt. Renee Schuster.

According to dispatch logs, passengers in the car included Valerie Cass, 25.

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Rick Berman

Complaint Spotlights 'Dr. Evil' Campaign Against Drunk-Driving Protections

Zachary Roth | May 13, 2010, 11:35AM

Rick Berman

Not too many people oppose efforts to keep drunk drivers off the road. But then, not too many people are known to enemies and friends alike as "Dr. Evil," and revel in their role as the poster boy for deceptive astroturf corporate lobbying.

We're talking, of course, about TPMmuckraker favorite Rick Berman, who has built a lucrative business by creating a string of industry-funded front groups that have fought efforts to fight smoking, drinking, and obesity without revealing their corporate clients.

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Vito Fossella

Does Embezzlement Scandal Explain Fossella's Missing FEC Reports?

Zachary Roth | May 12, 2010, 3:32PM

Former Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY)

Two-family man Vito Fossella is said to be mulling a bid to recapture his old House seat -- but he hasn't filed FEC reports, as required by law, in over a year. Could a Republican embezzlement scandal help explain why?

The commission recently wrote to Fossella -- a New York Republican who left Congress under a cloud in 2009 -- to inform him that his campaign committee had failed to file a quarterly report for the January-March 2010 period, as required by law. This was the fourth "failure to file" notice Fossella has received from the committee over the last year, according to online records examined by TPMmuckraker. The former lawmaker didn't file reports for any of the second, third, or fourth quarters of 2009.

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Roy Ashburn

CA GOP Legislator Roy Ashburn: 'I'm Gay'

Zachary Roth | March 8, 2010, 1:22PM

State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-CA)

The family-values California Republican legislator who was reported to have been at a gay club on the night last week that he was arrested for drunk driving has acknowledged he is gay.

"I'm gay," State Senator Roy Ashburn told a radio host from his central California district in an interview this morning. "Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long."

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Roy Ashburn

Gay Club Manager: I Didn't See Anti-Gay State Senator Here -- It Was Latin Night

Justin Elliott | March 4, 2010, 2:28PM

State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-CA)

The manager of the night club where anti-gay California state Sen. Roy Ashburn was reportedly hanging out before his 2 a.m. DUI arrest Wednesday tells TPMmuckraker she didn't see him at the club that night.

Tuesday night is Latin night at Faces, explained manager Laurie Bonifield in a phone interview. The club describes itself as "Sacramento's premier GLBTI Nightclub since 1985."

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Roy Ashburn

Sources: Family Values GOPer Was At Gay Club Before Drunk Driving Arrest

Zachary Roth | March 4, 2010, 9:17AM

CA Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield)

A California Republican family values legislator who was arrested early Wednesday morning for drunk driving had recently left a gay club, sources tell a local news channel.

State senator Roy Ashburn was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on Wednesday at 2am in Sacramento, after police saw the car he was driving swerving erratically. An unidentified male passenger was in the car with Ashburn.

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John Sweeney

John Sweeney Jailed For Drunk Driving

Zachary Roth | February 26, 2010, 5:14PM

Former Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY)

John Sweeney will serve 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to driving drunk, reports the Albany Times-Union.

The former Republican congressman from New York was pulled over in April for doing 59 mph in a 40 mph zone, and refused to take a Breathalyzer test. He had also pleaded guilty to DWI charges in 2007, but avoided jail time.

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Kabul Shooting

Coke, Booze, Assault: Blackwater Contractors' Past Revealed In Murder Case

Justin Elliott | January 25, 2010, 6:35PM

SUV involved in May 2009 traffic incident

The two former Blackwater contractors who were charged this month with murder for the shooting death of two Afghan men left the military with other-than-honorable discharges for behavior ranging from assault to going AWOL and testing positive for cocaine, according to service records that surfaced in bond hearings, the AP reports.

A judge in federal court in Virginia has ordered Christopher Drotleff and Justin Cannon held in custody; arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. The judge called Drotleff "a danger to the community based on the nature of the charged offense, his history of alcohol abuse and criminal and military history which include crimes of violence."

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John Sweeney

Sweeney's License Suspended For Refusal To Take Sobriety Test

Zachary Roth | October 16, 2009, 4:17PM

Fmr. Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY)

John Sweeney may have to take the bus for the next year and a half.

The former New York GOP congressman has had his driver's license suspended for refusing to take a sobriety test when police pulled him over for speeding in April and smelled alcohol on his breath.

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