Lawler reveals 2012 drunk driving arrest amid reelection race
Mike Lawler said he was arrested on St. Patrick’s Day 2012 after driving drunk in Westchester, a disclosure that lands in a tight House race.
Mike Lawler disclosed a 2012 drunk driving arrest as he campaigns for reelection in New York’s 17th Congressional District. Lawler said he chose to speak publicly because he had recently told graduating seniors at Nanuet High School about the episode and wanted them to make better choices.
Lawler said St. Patrick’s Day 2012 was a night he wishes never happened. He was 25, he said, and had just learned that his father’s cancer had spread to his brain. After going into Manhattan to see friends and drinking, Lawler drove home on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, where he was pulled over near Exit 13. He said he failed a breathalyzer test and was arrested. The case was later resolved with a driving while ability impaired plea.
The Republican congressman said the hardest part was telling his father, Michael “Mick” Lawler, who was a recovering alcoholic and had been sober for nearly two decades. Lawler said he was “deeply disappointed” in himself and felt he let his father down. He said the disclosure was tied to his effort to be direct with students and voters about a mistake that has remained part of his personal history.
At the time of the arrest, Lawler was executive director of the New York Republican State Committee. He later served as campaign manager for Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino before winning a congressional seat of his own. He is now a two-term Republican incumbent facing Democrat Cait Conley, who won the crowded Democratic primary in the Hudson Valley district.
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