You may have heard the phrase, "Party like a rock star," but in the past week, it seems more like the phrase should be, "Party like an Oklahoma legislator." An Oklahoma senator concluding his final term and a former Oklahoma Senate President currently running for another office have both been arrested on drunk driving complaints in the past week.

On Thursday, Senator Harry Edward Coates, R-Seminole, was arrested in Texas on a DWI complaint. According to the arrest report, Coates, 63, was pulled over in Howe, Texas, after police noticed him driving erratically. Police say that the senator was unable to maintain balance during questioning and that he was unable to successfully perform the requested tasks during a field sobriety test. Coates was booked into the county jail but released early the next morning on $1500 bond.

Ironically, Coates is the author of a bill that, if passed, would have strengthened DUI penalties in Oklahoma. A 2009 Senate press release describes SB 1014, the Brandon Burgett Act:

Each year, more than 17,000 Americans are killed by drunk drivers including approximately 275 Oklahomans and around 1.5 million drunk drivers are arrested according the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office. Having lost a loved-one in 2008 at the hands of a drunk driver, Sen. Harry Coates has filed legislation to strengthen the penalties against these individuals in hopes that other families won’t have to suffer like his and so many other families have. 

SB 1014, also known as the Brandon Burgett Act, is named in memory of Coates’ sister-in-law’s 20-year-old step-nephew. Burgett was killed and his 17-year-old girlfriend put in the hospital after a drunk driver hit them head on as they were coming back from a Christian concert in Oklahoma City on July 5. The drunk driver, 26-year-old Brent Johnson, was killed also. The young couple was driving to Sen. Coates’ brother’s house, where Burgett had lived for the past three years while attending Seminole State College. They were a half mile from their turnoff on I-40 when Johnson hit them head on while traveling west bound in the east bound lane. 

“Law enforcement officials told us that thirty seconds more and Brandon and his girlfriend would have been safely off the highway. One’s life can change in an instant, and on that Sunday two lives were senselessly lost and, sadly, they’re just two of the thousands of Americans that die each year in drunk driving accidents,” said Coates, R-Seminole. “We’re all human and we make mistakes, but we must do something in our society so that people stop taking the risk of getting behind the wheel drunk because there aren’t always second chances when it comes to drinking and driving.”

Senator Coates isn't the only local politician dealing with an embarrassing DUI arrest this week. Former Senator Cal Hobson, who is currently running for the office of Canadian County Commissioner was arrested Sunday in Noble on a drunk driving complaint. Police say a breath test indicated Hobson's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to be 0.27 percent, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Hobson's alleged BAC was high enough to charge him with aggravated DUI, a felony; however, police say what Hobson did next only made things worse. Allegedly, he offered to pay a Noble police officer up to $50,000 to release him after his arrest. In addition to felony DUI, Hobson was arrested on a bribery complaint, also a felony.