Date: Fri 10-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-Varese-drunk-driving

Full Text:

Ed Ink: Varese Should Not Run Again

One of Newtown's state representatives, William Varese, will appear in court

next month on charges of driving while intoxicated and evading responsibility.

It is not the kind of public attention politicians relish, especially Mr

Varese, whose political fortunes seem to rise and fall in inverse proportion

to the public attention he gets.

Earlier this year, our state representative in the 112th District drew

attention to himself for his vocal opposition to lowering the state's drunk

driving blood alcohol limit from 0.1 to 0.08. His choice of this particular

issue to raise his public profile proved to be a bad one.

On March 9, Mr Varese was arrested following an incident in which he allegedly

emerged intoxicated from a Bridgeport strip bar, got in his car, struck a

parked car pushing it into two pedestrians, continued driving, and then struck

four other parked cars before he was arrested. His blood alcohol level was

measured at 0.167, but since the police report of the incident failed to

record the time his blood-alcohol test was taken, he avoided the mandatory

90-day administrative suspension of his license imposed on all drunk drivers.

In all the public attention over this incident, we also learned that Mr Varese

was convicted last year for driving while impaired. As we said, Mr Varese

doesn't seem to fare well when the public spotlight is turned on him.

We are deeply disappointed with Mr Varese. His alleged behavior, if true, is

not in the least representative of Newtown. We do not expect our elected

leaders to be perfect, and we know they will make mistakes both in their

public and personal lives. But we are especially disappointed to find that Mr

Varese apparently did not learn his lesson the first time he was caught and

that he now apparently believes he should escape the consequences of his most

recent arrest because of a technical flaw in the police report.

While he has expressed remorse over his embarrassing behavior in Bridgeport,

Mr Varese has not publicly acknowledged that he has a drinking problem. He has

issued no apologies to his constituents, and he seems to be assessing his

chances of riding out the storm and staying out of the spotlight long enough

to allow him to slip back into office this year.

Those chances took a big hit this week when Gov John Rowland suggested that Mr

Varese could serve his party and his constituents best by not running for

reelection in 1998. We endorse that view and encourage Newtown's Republican

leaders to convey the same message to Mr Varese. When it comes to

representation for Newtown's residents living in the 112th District, we can do

better.