Some politicians can’t stop talking; one Pennsylvania pol couldn’t stop hiccuping. But the state lawmaker has now beaten the affliction after weeks in the hospital.
State Rep. Larry Roberts, a Democrat running for re-election, was back in his office Tuesday after being released from a hospital where he had been treated since July 19.
“Not only were the hiccups debilitating, but I was not allowed to have anything in my mouth, so I had to deal with a feeding tube, and that made matters worse,” Roberts said in a statement Tuesday.
Neither Roberts’ staff nor the House Democratic Communications Office described the cause of the chronic hiccups or the treatment that helped him get a handle on it.
Roberts handled paperwork from his hospital bed and canceled eight town meetings in his 51st District, about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh.
The six-term state lawmaker is running for re-election against Republican Harry E. Albert III and independent candidates including Timothy S. Mahoney.
The race has been tainted by allegations that Roberts tried to recruit a spoiler candidate to siphon votes from Mahoney, who was challenging Roberts in the Democratic primary. Mahoney was removed from that ballot because of paperwork that was not in order.
Roberts has denied any impropriety. The state attorney general is probing the allegations of election fraud.