Republican 5th District congressional candidate Jon Golnik acknowledged on Tuesday that he was arrested more than nine years ago for driving under the influence of alcohol.
"I had too much to drink," he said. "And I drove. It was a stupid thing to do."
Golnik, who lived in Belmont, at the time, was pulled over on Route 2 on his way home from an AC/DC concert at the FleetCenter earlier in the evening. He said the arrest was a low point during a tragic period in his life.
Golnik's 26-year-old brother had been killed in a motorcycle accident in August 1999, 21 months before the arrest.
"It was a pretty dark time for me," he said. "I was very close to him."
He says he admitted to drinking immediately after being pulled over on May 4, 2001.
"They asked if I'd been drinking, and I said 'yes.' "
As a result of his arrest, the Carlisle resident took a three-month alcohol education course that taught him about the dangers of drinking and driving.
"Look," he said. "It was a low point. But it's made me a better person, better father, better husband. Mistakes are only mistakes if you fail to learn from them, and I have. It hasn't happened again, and it won't."
Golnik said that the incident doesn't alter his candidacy, nor his message of accessibility.
"I made a stupid mistake," he said. "[But] this doesn't change me as candidate. I've been engaged, and I've listened."
He said that his campaign has been run "on the issues" and that won't change because of the arrest.
"This campaign is about ... moving forward," he said. "And we're going to continue to do that."
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Golnik has taped a new message on his website for his weekly series, "The Bright Board," in which the Carlisle resident explains a policy and how he'd manage it more effectively.
This week's installment is on the stimulus package. Golnik says that while it brought more than $600 million to the state and created more than $12,000 jobs, the price of $50,000 was too high and cannot be sustained.
"I think it can be done cheaper in the private sector," he said.
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Republican candidate Tom Weaver said he would rather see members of the American military securing the border with Mexico than fighting in Afghanistan.
Weaver, one of four Republicans hoping to win the Sept. 14 primary, said the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have changed from combat to peace-making — and that personnel numbers in those countries should change to reflect the new reality.
He questioned the surge of additional troops in Afghanistan.
"Can armored groups operate on goat paths high in the mountains?" Weaver asked. "Micromanagement, similar to the Vietnam conflict, is not the answer."
The winner of the Sept. 14 primary will go on to challenge 5th District Congresswoman Niki Tsongas in the November 2010 election.
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Andover Republican Bob Shapiro, one of four Republican candidates for the 5th District seat in Congress, has outlined what he calls "the danger of the deficit," a financial emergency he says starts with overspending and a lack of regulation.
"For many years, our elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, have avoided Generally Accepted Accounting Practices in describing the budget," he said.
GAAP is a term referring to standard accounting guidelines, and includes rules as to how to summarize transactions and prepare financial statements.
"If this had been a private company, all the officers and directors would have been locked up for defrauding the shareholders," Shapiro said.
Shapiro said that because of political fear and negative voter reaction to overspending, Congress started "hiding the spending in 'Off Budget' accounts." This, according to Shapiro, created the national debt.
Shapiro gives three options for easing the debt. The first two, he says, are already being executed in Washington.
Raise taxes. "It is an established economic fact that, in a tax heavy economy such as ours, higher rates being in lower revenues."
Print more money. "Value does not just appear out of nothingness," he said. "It must be created. So if we print new dollars, where does the value come from?"
Cut spending. "We need to cut the federal budget by $2 trillion, and it needs to be done quickly."
"I believe it can and must be done," he said.
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Chelmsford Independent Dale Brown has entered the 5th District race to unseat incumbent Democrat Niki Tsongas. Brown is a 14-year Navy veteran who has worked in naval intelligence throughout the Vietnam and Cold War eras. His name will not appear on the Sept. 14 primary ballot, but can be written in on either party's ballot.
See the Sept. 9 edition of The Haverhill Gazette for a full preview of the Sept. 14 primary races.
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