Republican King County Councilwoman Hague faces DUI charge

[flamingyouth]

King County Councilwoman Jane Hague faces a drunken driving charge stemming from a June 2 incident near Bellevue, authorities said Tuesday.

Hague, a Republican representing Council District 6 in the Bellevue-Kirkland area, is running for re-election this fall.

Hague, 61, was stopped by a State Patrol trooper on State Route 520, according to court documents. She pleaded not guilty during a July 30 arraignment in King County District Court in Redmond.

Hague did not return calls for comment.

On Tuesday, King County prosecutors handed the case to the Redmond City Attorney's office to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. The county's civil division provides legal advice to the County Council, Prosecutor's Office spokesman Dan Donohoe said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/328474_hague22.html

[Turbineguy]

1. Hey, give her a break!

if I were a republican, I'd stay drunk. "Sober me up when we lose the next election!"

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Funny how this was NOT newsworthy until after she was de facto reelected

Had this made headlines when she was arrested, there would have been a month for challengers to get filed. Instead, she ran unopposed in the primary and with no one else running in the general election.

Had this made headlines on July 30, when she was arraigned, there would have been two and a half weeks for a write-in challenge to get organized. Instead, no such challenge was mounted.

My understand of how county elections work is that, having won the primary and with no challenge for the general election, she will not even appear on the general election ballot and, for all intents and purposes, been re-elected. So now it is safe to call her arrest newsworthy because there is squat anyone can do about it.



See further comments in this thread.

[flamingyouth]

3. The reason it took so long is that she gave the officer her married name.

Who knew who "Jane Springman" was?

I also love that the first thing she asked the arresting officer was, "Don't you have rapists to catch?" or something like that.

WHAT AN ASSHOLE.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. I am to belive it was pure coincidence this was not caught until the day after the election?

I don't buy it, sorry. Maybe my tin foil hat is on too tight, but this stinks to high heaven of a cover-up.

[flamingyouth]

5. It's possible, true.

But she didn't have an actual challenger in her party, and the only Dem challengers were perennial wacko Richard Pope and a write-in one (always a dicey proposition). And she's had several run-ins with the law regarding her driving before, so who knows how this would have affected the election either way.

On edit - could be a cover up or massive incompetence in the prosecutor's office. We could use this incident to get Dan Satterberg out of office...