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Reagan Conservative Chuck Bradley Running in 62^nd District

By Jeff “Mario” Smith, Guerilla Reporter

March 13, 2006

The fortieth president of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan, is known for his articulate expression of a belief in limited government, personal responsibility, and economic freedom. Reagan is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most popular and charismatic conservative leader of the tumultuous 20^th century.

The belief is largely held that the “Goldwater Revolution”, formidably ushered in by an historic speech made and written by Ronald Reagan himself, is the very revolution that later brought “The Gipper” into the White House to lead America away from the doom and gloom of democrat entitlement economics that had largely destroyed liberty, and our economy. Too bad so many Americans don’t understand how the Reagan tax cuts and a Republican Congress made Bill Clinton look so good.

In 1963, Charles O. “Chuck” Bradley, his wife, and first child were living outside Los Angeles, CA when they saw the Goldwater speech on television. They were so inspired that they got their baby out of bed and went down to the Burbank Western Union office to wire their last $7 to the Goldwater campaign. From then on, Chuck was a Goldwater campaign volunteer going so far as to carry a “Goldwater” Ginger Ale in his lunchbox every day. He told me a story that happened while he was wearing out the shoe leather for Senator Goldwater. Chuck came upon a group of skinhead Nazis who were harassing elderly people. This young man, full of himself, as most of us were in our twenties, chased them off. Now, this is my kind of guy! I can only look up to someone like Chuck because I was too young in 1963 to understand any of this. Knowing what I know now, men like Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and Congressman Ron Paul are my heroes.

“You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down, up to man’s age-old dream -- the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.” – Ronald Wilson Reagan¹

That quote, my friends, defines the difference between conservatives and liberals, capitalists and socialists, and Christians and secularists. It is what our founding fathers declared as the rights of all men in our Declaration of Independence, and preserved for us in our Constitution, a revered document the left loves to describe as having a “fluid” personality. I would like to suggest that fluid flows down the path of least resistance and that is not where a free people should desire to go. Nothing worth having comes easy.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” ² This simple Biblical truth we cannot escape. We see it played out daily as we witness the proverbial second “Fall of Rome”. Oh, to have nothing but virtuous people in elected office!

Chuck Bradley, a Christian man of virtue, is running for State Representative in Kentucky’s 62^nd District, Scott and North-Northwest Fayette Counties. Chuck sent out an email stating, “I am a Reagan Republican and will never waiver – a fiscal as well as moral conservative.” Chuck Bradley is running against a liberal democrat, Charlie Hoffman. Representative Hoffman supports more oppressive union power by not supporting the prevailing wage law and the right to work bills and has stated that city and county workers in Scott County would be unionized if he were Judge Executive. He had to be coerced hard to support the fetal homicide bill making it a criminal offense to injure a fetus, and is listed as “anti-life” by the Louisville Right to Life lobbying group. Also, he has allied himself with the pro-homosexual Fairness Alliance group, and has been categorized by many as a strict “party man”. One thing we won’t have to worry about with Chuck Bradley is the “party man” phenomenon. Chuck lamented on several issues he has with the Republican Party, especially their out of control democrat-lite spending policies, and the open borders.

In the election of 2004, at a town hall meeting with Charlie Hoffman, one of his constituents asked Hoffman about his position against the fetal homicide bill and the most amazing thing happened I have ever seen at a public meeting. Mr. Hoffman just stood there, refused to answer the question, and said nothing at all. The silence was overwhelming and this went on for a period of minutes. I saw the video and was amazed. I cannot believe that a representative would refuse to answer his constituents. Oops, that’s not true, socialist Ben Chandler did that very thing to me at a town hall meeting in the Peoples Republic of Berea about a year and a half ago. I was amazed; the man verbally attacked me because of who I chose to sit next to rather than answer my question.

Our Pastor sent an email to current 62nd District Representative Charlie Hoffman asking him to take a strong stand against expanded gambling since the Governor chose to neuter himself on this issue. It took six weeks for Charlie Hoffman to respond and when he did it was one of those empty non-committal letters thanking the writer for his involvement in the process and taking no position whatsoever. The response was vanilla and could have been sent to any constituent who wrote about any issue, in any decade, one of those. It appears the 62^nd District is in need of a change of representation in Frankfort and it appears that Chuck Bradley is the right conservative at the right time to make the right changes.

Among the terrible bills supported by Charlie Hoffman is HB 511, a collective bargaining bill for public employees, and introduced HB 86, which makes seat belt violations a primary offense meaning a law enforcement officer can pull you over if you are not wearing, or if he ”thinks” you are not wearing, your seatbelt. This ridiculous “big brother” bill thankfully failed in the Senate. Representative Hoffman also opposed a very important piece of legislation relating to the right to keep and bear arms and should be voted out of office for this one single vote in this writer’s opinion.

HB290 sought to prohibit the illegal seizure of firearms by law enforcement during a declared emergency, which is what happened in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Law-abiding citizens, in many documented cases, had their firearms forcefully confiscated by law enforcement thereby removing their Second Amendment constitutional right to keep and bear arms to protect family, home, property, and yes, country. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had been one of those citizens whose civil rights were forcefully taken from them. I can hear it now on CNN, “14 Law Enforcement Officers Missing as New Orleans Citizen Refuses to Give Up His Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Militias From Several States Responding – More at 11.” As the state motto of New Hampshire declares, “Live Free or Die.”

In speaking out against big brother legislation like the new primary seat belt law in Kentucky, Chuck Bradley stated, “…my forefathers died for you to have the freedom to write what you believe, without fear of repercussion. Seat belts are great, helmets are a sure life saver, and the freedom we enjoy to make our own decisions is what they fought and died for.” Now, that’s refreshing!

He also stated, “I want to be the State Representative fighting to preserve and to protect the foundations our forefathers put in place, for ourselves and for future generations of Kentuckians.” His bio states he is a 66 year old retired businessman who believes in country, God, family, and all the freedoms our forefathers intended for us. It sounds like Chuck Bradley trusts his fellow Kentuckians to self govern and take responsibility for ourselves. On that we whole-heartedly agree.

Chuck grew up in Kentucky but moved to California in 1959 to build a career in the trucking industry, starting at the bottom and working up to the Los Angeles terminal manager for Santa Fe. During his tenure there, terminal revenue increased by three million dollars per month. Moving back to Kentucky in 1979, Chuck and Mrs. Bradley purchased the Midway Corner Grocery and a home in Scott County where they lived and raised their five children. We could use this fiscal knowledge and business sense in Frankfort where free spending socialism has been the rule of the day for too long.

Chuck says that in 1993 he was appointed to the Lottery Board by then Governor Brereton Jones where he served for five and a half years, two of those as chairman of the audit committee, where hard work instilled honesty and integrity into the system. Without increasing sales, the profit margin was increased by 50 Million Dollars in the first year. This says Bradley, “was accomplished by cutting waste, cracking down on fraud and abuse, and holding everyone on the Lottery Board to a high standard.” Whew, we sure could use this in the Kentucky State Legislature!

On private property rights, Chuck said he would support HB 554, the strongest property rights bill currently being put forward in the state legislature, taking the abuses of eminent domain very seriously. He told me a story about the town of Midway trying to take a large portion of his parking lot and close off two entrances and exits in order to build a seventeen foot wide traffic island. When they came out with the Woodford County Police to barricade his parking lot, Chuck sent them back to the police station and told them they were not going to steal his land. Then, the Governor’s office sent down their chief highway man to measure for the seventeen foot island. Chuck told him what was acceptable and it was a lot less than seventeen feet so he could continue to have customers enter and exit the property easily. The highway man said ok and left. When the highway crew showed up with jackhammers to start digging for the islands, they had the seventeen foot island in their blueprints. Chuck stopped them, stood his ground, and it took a lot of fighting, but they were able to convince the state to do otherwise so their business would not be negatively impacted. I think it is safe to say that Chuck Bradley, 62^nd District State Representative, will stand strong for private property rights.

Chuck Bradley laid out the following platform for us to know what he is all about…

·        Strong traditional family values.

·        The sanctity of marriage.

·        Government “of the people”, not “over” the people.

·        Less government, not more.

·        The right of prayer in public schools.

·        The posting of the Ten Commandments in public places.

·        These rights are slowly being eroded.

·        Casinos are not needed in Kentucky.

·        Life begins at conception.

·        The right of private property ownership, a basic freedom, is not to be tread upon.

·        Firearms ownership as a right to protect our country, homes, families, and selves.

“You won’t get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There’s only one way to get real gun control; disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up, and if you don’t throw away the key, at least lose it for a very long time.” – Ronald Wilson Reagan ³

¹ “Speaking My Mind, Selected Speeches”, by Ronald Reagan, page 26, Televised Nationwide Address on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater, October 27^th, 1964

² Proverbs 29:2, The Holy Bible, King James Version, 1611

³ “Salute To The President Dinner”, Long Beach, CA, 1983

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