The TU reports this morning that Sen. Neil Breslin admitted he had been drinking the night he was pulled over by a State Police trooper and given a field sobriety test (which he passed), directly contradicting a Senate Democratic spokesman’s account of the incident.

From the story:

“I had a couple of glasses of wine. Period,” Breslin, D-Bethlehem, said. “If I didn’t think I was fine, I wouldn’t have driven.”

The senator spoke briefly before a Wednesday evening banquet for the Whitney M. Young Health Center. For a week, Breslin has declined to answer repeated inquiries about the details of the evening, when he was given a field sobriety test by a State Police officer and, as he said, drove himself home.

This week Breslin revealed that a state trooper administered a field alcohol breath test, but he refused to authorize police to share the results of that test or any other information with the public.

Breslin said he had attended two events on the evening in question (Oct. 19): A fundraiser at a Central Avenue bar for Schenectady County Legislator Susan Savage, a Democrat who is challenging veteran GOP Sen. Hugh Farley, and a cocktail party at the Dale Miller restaurant for the Civil Service Employees Association.

Previously, Senate Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran had told both me and the TU that the senator was “absolutely” not drinking on the night he was pulled over. We had quite a back-and-forth about why the senator had been given a field sobriety test if he had given the trooper no reason to suspect that was necessary.

Breslin told the TU a completely different story, saying he had indeed indicated to the trooper that he had “a couple” of glasses of wine and then got in his car to drive home.

He said Shafran’s account of the incident, which the spokesman said he gave after speaking with the senator and members of his staff, was “absolutely wrong” and insisted he hadn’t wanted Shafran to speak for him in the first place.

The senator, who is running for his his eighth term against Republican Bob Domenici and Reform Party candidate Michael Carey, insisted: “I’ve told you the truth, I have nothing to hide. So let’s let it go at that, OK?”

Breslin refused to allow the State Police to release any information about his traffic stop. He also went to great lengths on Oct. 21 to avoid speaking to a YNN reporter camped outside his Capitol office for several hours, waiting behind closed doors while his staff informed the reporter he wasn’t present. The senator eventually spoke to the reporter, and gave him much the same account as Shafran had given to me.

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