Randy Hopper has had a rough go of it lately. First there was a very public and messy divorce. Then there was the recall vote of state senators in Wisconsin in the aftermath of Gov. Scott Walker’s battle against unions that claimed Hopper’s seat. Now he’s facing drunk driving charges (pictured).
Hopper is the owner of a quartet of stations including News-Talk KFIZ-AM Fond du Lac, AC WFON-FM in the same town, and two sports outlets, WCLB-AM Sheboygan and WMBE-AM Chilton (WMBE is rented under terms of an LMA, not owned).
The labor strife came when newly-installed Gov. Walker took on public labor unions with backing of state senate Republicans, which chased Democrats clear out of the state to deny a quorum and garnered national headlines.
Democrats mounted a recall campaign against Republican senators they considered vulnerable, and although they did not win enough of the contests to take over the Senate, they did manage to capture Hopper’s seat.
An article in TPMMuckraker suggests that Hopper’s well-publicized divorce and the vocal criticism he received from his ex-wife may well have been a factor in his narrow 51%-49% loss.
On Sunday 10/16/11, according to the Fon du Lac Express, he was arrested for driving erratically about 5:30PM. Valerie Cass, the staffer for whom he allegedly left his wife, was in the vehicle with him. He is said to have received a field sobriety test, to have refused a breathalyzer test, and to have spent 12 hours in jail.
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