Sunday alcohol sales campaign manager charged with drunken driving

Megan Robertson, the Republican political operative who was hired to run the campaign to legalize Sunday carryout alcohol sales, is facing drunken driving charges after police say her vehicle crashed into a Near Eastside fast food restaurant on Christmas Eve.

Robertson, 32, lost control of her Chevrolet Equinox and struck a Hardee's restaurant at 921 E. Washington St., according to a probable cause affidavit. Robertson told police she was on her way home from a Fountain Square bar at about 1 a.m. after drinking two beers.

A breathalyzer test later showed she had a blood alcohol content of 0.168 percent, the affidavit said. That is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent for driving in Indiana.

"I am incredibly ashamed of my poor judgment in this situation," Robertson said in a statement to The Star. "I am very grateful no one was injured, and I am very sorry to those I have let down. This lapse in judgment should not reflect on the causes that I have worked on over the course of my career."

She is charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person and operating a vehicle with an alcohol concentration equivalent to 0.15 percent or more.

Both charges are class A misdemeanors and carry a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Robertson was hired late last year to help run the campaign to repeal Indiana's ban on Sunday alcohol sales at grocery, liquor, convenience and drug stores. The campaign is being led by Hoosiers for Sunday Sales, a coalition of national grocery chains and business groups such as the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Robertson said she resigned from the campaign after the incident.

News of the arrest comes as the campaign to overturn the Prohibition-era restriction on Sunday sales gains steam.

A key committee chairman, Rep. Tom Dermody, recently filed a bill that would allow Sunday carryout sales from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

And Senate President Pro Tempore David Long said Thursday that he doesn't personally have a problem with Sunday alcohol sales and believes the measure should get a hearing in the Senate if it passes out of the House. The Senate has been less receptive than the House in the past.

Similar efforts to legalize Sunday carryout sales in recent years have met stiff resistance from the state's powerful liquor store lobby, which fears the measure would increase costs without generating additional revenue. As a result, past measures have not even received a committee vote.

One of the arguments advanced by liquor stores is that alcohol is a dangerous substance and that restrictions on its sale should not be eroded.

Supporters of the measure, however, argue that Sunday sales are a matter of convenience. Alcohol, they say, is already being sold at grocery, convenience and drug stores during the other six days of the week.

Robertson successfully led last year's Freedom Indiana campaign to stall a proposed amendment to Indiana's constitution that would have banned gay marriage.

She later created FrontRunner Strategies, a political consulting firm, and was working for Hoosiers for Sunday Sales at the time of her arrest.

Call Star reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.