The lead story in the current issue of this weekly newspaper is about the charges made by Goodman's estranged wife, Liv Grohn, in their divorce proceedings.
State House Rep. Roger Goodman of Kirkland was accused of driving under the influence of marijuana with his children present by his estranged wife, according to divorce documents filed last October.
Goodman - a legislator for six years with the 45th Legislative District - denies these claims vehemently, as he has been a longtime advocate for safe driving and DUI law reform.
(Having read this, some will suspect that Goodman has a personal reason for wanting marijuana decriminalized. A few may suspect that they have found an explanation for some of his more unusual votes in the legislature.)
You can read more details in the article; you can even, I suppose, look at the court papers yourself. I don't plan to do that since I don't know either person and have no opinion on each person's credibility.
But the article was followed by an apologetic editorial, explaining why they had run the article. Here's the key paragraph:
We ultimately decided to report on the issue since the substance of the allegations directly relate to Goodman's legislation for safe driving, DUI law reform and marijuana legalization and decriminalization.
(And, we should add, a pattern of law breaking by Representative Goodman — if his wife's accusations are true.)
What puzzles me about that editorial is the apologetic tone, and the "ultimately". This seems like an absolutely legitimate story, which requires no apology, and a story the voters should have seen before our last election.
The Reporter should apologize, not for running this story, but for the delay in running it.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
(For those not familiar with this area: The 45th district is one of the suburban districts that swung to the Democrats and gave them control of our lower house, in recent years. His narrow win — less than 2,000 votes — in the 2010 election suggests to me that he could be vulnerable next year.)
Posted by Jim Miller at March 14, 2013 08:27 AM | Email This