Ohio 43 Vernon Sykes Catches DUI charge

As reported in the ABJ today, former State Rep. and candidate in Ohio House 43 Vernon Sykes got caught in APD’s DUI checkpoint this weekend. On advice from his "wife and lawyer" (not clear if they were one and the same), he refused the breathalyzer. So we know he wasn’t too intoxicated to follow SOP for politicos in the situation. He has caught an automatic suspension for his troubles, but he’s avoided headlines saying ”Vernon Sykes blows X on a Breath Test” and generally preserved his deniability.

My guess is that this doesn’t matter much. Sykes is in a heavily African American lockdown Dem district and enjoys broad popularity. In general, urban black constituencies, like other affinity groups, tend to be pretty tolerant of imperfection in their leaders. Conservative Christians in Georgia won’t hear a bad word against Ralph Reed and thousands of Italian Americans still believe James Traficant was railroaded. A little bitty DUI charge won’t make much of a dent in Sykes’ support.

By the way; if you didn’t catch it, the checkpoint was a shot across the bow of would be ID4 revelers. Be careful out there this weekend

And yet again, I'm filling in for YellowDogSammy. Who knew the Ohio legislature races would be so active in his absense?