Views on News • October 22nd, 2009

No more

by Chris Lato

The news of yet another arrest for State Rep. Jeff Wood is angering, sad and, no pun intended, sobering.

First and foremost, Wood is a clear danger to the general public as he repeatedly gets behind the wheel while (allegedly) under the influence. It is unacceptable behavior from anyone, but in Wood’s case he is accused of breaking the laws he is charged with creating and overseeing as a legislator.

Wood’s last-minute play during the last election cycle to preserve his re-election chances by jumping from the GOP to Independent status was a nakedly obvious effort to prevent a serious challenge from Republicans. But this is beyond partisanship. The guy needs help before he kills himself and others. And he should be punished for repeatedly breaking the law.

Many, many legislators and other members of state government get nabbed for DUI. Typically, the Legislature and public are willing to forgive and forget, and party affiliation doesn’t matter.

But this is a deeper level of misconduct, and it goes without saying that Wood’s constituents deserve better representation than this. It is time for him to leave the Legislature, one way or another.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 8:48 am and is filed under Views on News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.