Virginia Delegate Chris Hurst Fails Sobriety Test. Gets A Pass.
Did you know that the Virginia Constitution prevents members of the General Assembly from being arrested for misdemeanor crimes while the legislature is in session?
Handy, isn’t it?
Especially for Democratic Del. Chris Hurst who represents Radford, Blacksburg and surrounding counties.
According to NBC, at about 2 a.m. Sunday, a car driven by the 32-year-old lawmaker began swerving out of its lane on the US 460 Bypass near Christiansburg. Hurst and his girlfriend, who were returning from a party, were pulled over. He told police he’d been drinking champagne and had taken Adderall. Hurst took two field sobriety tests and blew a .085, slightly over the legal limit.
Get a load of this dude trying to walk a straight line:
Nevertheless, Hurst wasn’t arrested. He was sent on his way as long as his girlfriend, whom Hurst said had also been drinking but passed a sobriety test, would drive.
According to news reports, the police officer said he didn’t release Hurst because he was a member of the House of Delegates, but because the cop figured that by the time he booked Hurst his BAC might have dropped below the legal limit.
That’s interesting.
Guess it didn’t occur to Officer Friendly that, depending on how recently Hurst had been quaffing bubbly, his BAC might have climbed even higher.
Wonder if an ordinary, non-elected drunk would enjoy this kind of sweet treatment?
In a lengthy post on his Facebook page that had been shared 345 times and had 1,600 comments when I checked late last night, Hurst apologized to voters for his “poor judgment.”
Hurst, a former TV anchor and reporter, is a two-term delegate who made national news when he decided to challenge incumbent Republican Joseph Yost. Hurst pledged to fight gun violence because of the trauma he’d been through after his girlfriend, TV reporter Alison Parker, was gunned down while doing a live shot in August of 2015. A cameraman was also killed in that shocking crime.
In an op-ed for The Daily Beast, Hurst wrote that he wanted to get into politics to "fight for those who are most vulnerable.”
Someone - heck, I’ll do it - ought to remind the young delegate that no one is more vulnerable than innocent people who happen to be on the road when irresponsible drunks are on the loose.
And a 3,000-pound car with an impaired driver behind the wheel is more dangerous than a gun.
Hurst hasn’t made much of an impact in the House since he’s been there, although he’s a co-patron this session of HB674, the House’s Red Flag Bill.
I checked his committee assignments. You couldn’t make this up: He’s on Transportation.
There are calls for the delegate to resign his seat, but given the ugly scandals that other Democrats weathered last year, I’m betting Gov. Ralph Northam and company will urge him to wait it out.
Worked for them.
