Gordon Apologizes, Admits Being Alcoholic

admitted to being an alcoholic and refused to relinquish his public office unless there is "public outcry," during a Wednesday morning press conference in Portsmouth.

Gordon, 42, of 35 Alan Ave., Portsmouth, was arrested on Friday, Sept. 16, as a fugitive from justice on a Massachusetts warrant for failure to appear on an eluding charge and other motor vehicle violations, according to the State Police report.

The freshman representative began Wednesday with an apology to his constituents.

"To my constituents, the voters of District 71, I apologize for any embarrassment I might have caused you with what has been in the media regarding my past," he said. 

The representative refused to step down from office, also promising to "run again." 

, spoke again about "self-medicating with alcohol." He claims the "self-medicating" was to treat post-traumatic stress from wartime service.

Gordon, a Marine Corps veteran, told reporters Wednesday he was wounded in his right leg by exploding shrapnel during a tour in Iraq in 1991. He was positioned eight miles south of Baghdad at the time of the injury, he said. 

Gordon also admitted to being charged in Massachusetts with operating under the influence (OUI) of alcohol, but said he did not remember when the arrest took place. 

When asked by a reporter if he felt he had an obligation to the voters to disclose his criminal past, Gordon said, "It's all about optics. Quite frankly, if we talk numbers to constituents, it's all about optics. No one would win office with a placard around their neck." 

Gordon said again he was "unaware" of the outstanding warrant, and he claimed there is nothing else the public does not know about. "I think it's pretty much an open book now," he said. "It's all out there."