CNSNews.com and NewsMax.com
Saturday, Nov. 4, 2000

In his failed 1998 campaign for Maine governor, Connolly attacked the social damage done by alcohol abuse and called for continued state control of liquor sales rather than turning to private enterprise, Fox News reported Friday.

Yet hypocritically, he said on a radio show, "By all means, folks, go out and drink and drive so I can defend you."

He said he would not quit his law practice to campaign because he wanted the money.

Connolly admitted Friday that he was responsible for the release of the documents about Bush's drunk-driving arrest in the mid-1970s.

"I was quite aware that the information was important to the American people and the evaluating the candidate and so that I wanted to try to make it available as soon as possible to people that could get it to the public so that the public could evaluate what's a suppressed fact," Connolly told Fox News, using the kind of syntax Democrats mock Bush for.

Among Connolly's drunk-driving clients was another gubernatorial candidate in 1999.

A LEXIS-NEXIS search of news article from the Bangor Daily News turned up a May 21, 1999, article describing how Connolly was defense counsel for Pat LaMarche, who was arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor on March 10, 1999. LaMarche was also one of four candidates for governor in 1998.

According to the article, Connolly declared that a Bangor District Court decision to throw out the charge against LaMarche meant he and his client "were victorious today," and that his client's reputation had been "brutalized" by the arrest.

Though LaMarche had the 1999 charges against her thrown out under Connolly's counsel, she was previously arrested and convicted of drunk driving in 1997. The Bangor Daily News reported that LaMarche was ordered to serve 167 hours of community service and attend weekend traffic safety courses as a result of the conviction.

LaMarche and Connolly were opponents in a four-way race against incumbent Gov. Angus King in 1998, with Connolly receiving only 12 percent of the vote on the Democrat ticket and LaMarche receiving 7 percent running as an independent.

Copyright CNSNews.com

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