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The Honorable Chuck Colgan Excerpts from an interview published in the Spring 2012 issue of Virginia Capitol Connections Quarterly Magazine By Mike Belefski

What are your most memorable moments serving as a Senator? I think of some of the characters I served with. I think the most colorful individual I served with was Senator Hunter Andrews. He was very vocal, had a brilliant mind and was great to work with. I sat beside him on the Senate floor for about eight years. He was a very brilliant guy, very smart. He was a great orator and would say some remarkable things; he was certainly one of my favorites. Then there’s EdWilley. No one will ever forget him. He was more colorful I suppose and more serious than Senator Andrews. Senator Willey was the most powerful man I ever saw and I’ve been all over this Commonwealth and country. I’ve never seen a single person who had the authority and had the power he had. If you wanted your bill to pass, you got Senator Willey to speak for it. You want to kill somebody’s bill, you got Senator Willey to speak against it. He spoke for your bill it passed; if he spoke against it failed. Senator Madison Marye was also very colorful; he was a great storyteller. John Chichester also was an excellent senator. There have been so many fine people who have served in this body and I think if the people of Virginia knew the forty people as I do they would be pretty proud. They are all really good people. During your numerous campaigns for office — there is a theme of “honor in politics” — How do you define “honor in politics”? I think that you can’t respond to the things people say about you. Some are total falsehoods. My opponent had a picture of President Obama and me and it looked like we had our arms around each other. The caption

Any comments about your ‘Rocky’ re-election campaign theme?

was “Senator Colgan and President Obama are collaborating to increase your taxes.” I’ve been accused of being friendly with people who have been in jail because of some sex offense. I did not respond to it. I tried to keep my cool and not respond to it. Many things like that occur and they are very insulting. Every time I got a nasty bulletin in the mail from my opponent I would send out a nice one with some enthusiasm and very positive. I’ve tried to keep it positive. I guess it worked since I won by 10%.

I got a lot of discussion out of it because people still see me in a 7-Eleven and holler “Hi Rocky.” It was really a very good TV commercial and I think we got a great deal of mileage out of it. Michael E. Belefski, is President of CPC CORPORATION, a Communications and Marketing Firm specializing in Performance Management Analysis in Business, Law and Political Systems. He can be reached at cpccorp@verizon.net . V

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