Must have been an awkward moment for Rep. Bachmann...
(Alex Balluf) and his mother Debbie met Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on Monday, at an economic forum in Blaine. They gave her a letter that outlined Alex's story.
He was struck and critically injured in a hit and run pedestrian crash last fall.
The driver, Julie Gronski, has pled guilty to driving drunk and hitting Alex. She told the court at her plea hearing she had over a dozen drinks.
Under the plea agreement, Gronski will likely be sentenced to no more than nine months in jail.
The Balluffs have started lobbying for "Alex's Law," to encourage stricter drunk driving penalties in the state of Minnesota...
Now why is that awkward for Michele Bachmann?
(CONTINUED)
Well, one of her biggest fans in this year's Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate, Tom Emmer. Emmer's a conservative in the Bachmann mold who showed up at her tea party event.
And he's got two DWI arrests on his police record.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/...
Not only that--Emmer's got a legislative "thing" for fellow drunk drivers. He authored two bills cut breaks to drunk drivers--not to the victims or to law enforcement. I don't think Bachmann's going to be thrilled at the prospect of having to ask Tom Emmer to get tougher on drunk drivers.
From a letter written by Cottage Grove Police Officer Randy McAlister:
I am simply appalled at Tom Emmer's DWI legislation sponsored last year.
First, he authored a bill which would have the practical effect of allowing DWI offenders to hide their convictions from the public after a period of time.
Second, he authored a bill which would allow arrested DWI offenders to continue driving legally - because it would have prohibited the administrative revocation of their licenses pending their court appearance. This means they could continue to drive, and potentially drive drunk, for months.
This bill also would have had the effect of preventing the imposition of enhanced sentences on many habitual drunk drivers.
Under Rep. Emmer's proposed bill, someone arrested again for DWI while a prior DWI charge is pending could only be charged with additional misdemeanors because they didn't have any convictions for the prior arrests yet. Under current law, prosecutors have the ability to charge such an offender with gross-misdemeanor or even felony DWI.
Right now, many judges are lenient on felony DWI offenders. These offenders are serious threats to public safety - to you, your loved ones, friends, and neighbors - but they rarely get sentences that are as stiff as they should be according to the state's sentencing guidelines.
Enforcement of our DWI laws on our highways and roads is already difficult enough.
Can you imagine how much worse enforcement efforts will be if multiple DWI offenders are allowed to skate with misdemeanor charges for a third or fourth DWI?...
...Tom Emmer is not a platform Republican when it comes to the life-or-death issue of drunk driving.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/...
Doesn't matter, he's the GOP choice for governor. I don't know how he's going to deal with his police record during the campaign; perhaps he plans to combine the functions of "Lieutenant Governor" with "Designated Driver."
Tom Emmer represents Wright County in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Wright County is in the state's top four in terms of drunk driving fatalities.
Over the previous three years...13 counties accounted for more than half of the state’s total alcohol-related deaths (267 of 519) and serious injuries (605 of 1,159).
Hennepin, the state’s most populous county, led the way with 60 impaired-driving deaths in 2006-08. Next were St. Louis County (29), Anoka County (28) and Wright County (27).
http://www.hjblogs.com/...
Wright county represents a core of Bachmann support. Anoka, Sherburne, Stearns, and Washington are also in Michele's 6th district. All are listed in the top 13 most deadly counties for Minnesota drunk driving.
I wonder what sort of stand Michele is going to take on toughening up drunk driving penalties--now that Emmer's the GOP candidate for governor?