Hughes and Booze. State Representative joins Newtown Democrats for “Pints & Policy” tonight.
State Representative Anne Hughes (D-Easton) was at the Red Rock bar in Hartford Thursday night with state Representative Robin Comey (D-Branford). After leaving the bar around 6:50 p.m., less than an hour after arriving, Comey struck a motor vehicle parked on Capitol, causing her car to flip onto its roof. Comey was assisted out of her car by nearby Good Samaritans.
When police arrived on the scene, they interviewed Comey and found her to be intoxicated. Video from Fox61–first on the scene from its headquarters around the corner–showed Comey unable to execute a field sobriety test. Tests revealed her blood alcohol level at .14, nearly twice the legal limit for the operation of a motor vehicle.
House Democrats acknowledged Friday that state Representatives Hughes, Lucy Dathan (D-New Canaan) and Kerry Wood (D-Newington) were with Comey at Red Rock before she made her to her car a block away. The three have declined to speak publicly about what they observed of Comey’s condition before she began her doomed drive home.
The incident–and the tragedy Comey could have inflicted–has been the subject of perplexed conversations since Thursday night. Especially puzzling is how Comey’s three colleagues could have been in the company of Comey and not have noticed or acted upon her intoxicated state. Hughes, according to her state website biography, is a Licensed Master Social Worker.
Hughes and state Representative Sarah Keitt (D-Fairfield), a public health advocate, have doused any expectations that Thursday night’s frightening crash would sober Capitol denizen drinkers. Instead, the Democratic duo will headline a “Pints & Policy” event this evening at Perfusion Bar in Newtown. The invitation states they will “discuss together what legislation is before the CT General Assembly this session.”
Maybe they will discuss urgent matters, but it’s no accident that “Pints” precedes “Policy” at the top of the invitation.
Published March 21, 2023.