The LOOTPRESS interview: Gary Vaughan – Candidate for Raleigh County Magistrate District 1

BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Local author, bail bondsman, artist, and combat veteran Gary Vaughan is known for his many interests and pursuits, and he can now add “ candidate for Raleigh County Magistrate ” to the list.

The candidate recently sat down with LOOTPRESS to discuss his own history, his ongoing campaign, and issues facing the citizens of Raleigh County today.

CG: Thanks for taking the time! How are you today?

GV: Doing very well, thank you. Glad to be here.

CG: You’re obviously known as a man who wears many hats. What was the first sort of passion or venture that you pursued that became a significant part of your life?

GV: Probably art. I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a small child, so no matter what else I’ve done, that’s always been a part of it.

CG: Of course, you’re running for Raleigh County Magistrate for District 1. Is this your first foray into the political realm and what motivated this run?

GV: I ran four years ago as a write-in [candidate] as a last minute thing, but this is my first real dive into it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it until I started hearing names about who was going to file and who was going to run. The county means a lot to me. So, I felt like it was time for somebody with some experience to get in.

CG: Which brings me to my next question. We both participated in the Beckley Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce’s Future Forward event last week, though unfortunately the media panel didn’t actually question Magistrate Candidates. But based on that presentation and the participants, how do you feel about this candidate pool? How are things boding for the city based on this, not just in the magistrate race, but across the board? Are you hopeful? Are we in trouble? Is there anyone who peaked your interest?

GV: That’s a really good question. I don’t know if I’m hopeful or if we’re in trouble. This race is very difficult to read. I’ve been involved in this community a long time and usually there’s two or three people to pick from across the board. But there are so many candidates with so many views this time that I’d be afraid to say. But do they have the community first? That’s the most important thing. People have to be careful and not vote for their friends and neighbors, as they need to vote for who knows what’s going on and who’s got this community first.

CB: In your opinion, what are some of the biggest problems currently facing the City of Beckley?

GV: Well, one of the things right now is where the mayor attempted to designate us as an Inclusive Recovery City without talking to anyone. I’m not taking a side on the Recovery City designation at all. What I am taking a side on is that we needed to know; that people needed to know that; and it happened behind our backs. Then when there was an uprising sort of on the Internet and people showing up, they got angry a little bit about it and decided to table it because of the way it was viewed. That wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t backdoored us or just [had] let the city know. These are important things and the people need to know about [them], in my opinion. They don’t need to say, “hey, look what we’ve done.” It should be, “let’s talk about what we want to do.”

CG: There does seem to be a transparency issue, and that’s the case with a lot of these happenings in City Council. It’s like the City Manager deal – a lot of people who were for the City Manager transition are up in arms now because of how the process happened. People feel like they didn’t have a say.

GV: Absolutely, and with transparency – that goes for the city; the county; the state; all the way up to governor. That’s very important nationally right now, it’s a problem no matter what side of the politics you’re on. Right now transparency is an issue on both sides.

CG: I wanted to talk a little bit about your art and your involvement in the local scene. You’ve been a strong proponent of some individuals and organizations promoting the arts on the local level. How do you think we could go about carving out a substantial place for the arts in Southern West Virginia and maybe get regular folks to take an interest, appreciate it, and maybe take it a little more seriously?

GV: That is a complicated question. It’s something that folks like me and everyone else involved in our community talk about everyday. One of the problems here is foot traffic downtown. We just don’t have it. There are grants out there. We could rent buildings, we could put artists in place, even give them places to work, But if there’s no foot traffic. It just doesn’t work. So that’s what we’re working on.

CG? A big downtown issue has been parking, which a few people mentioned during the [Beckley Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce Future Forward] forum, But that’s kind of a complex thing, too. There’s a garage down there.

GV: There is. But from what I understand, part of the deal and the financing of the garage was dependent on the Greyhound bus station being in the garage downstairs. I’m downtown every day. I’m in the courthouse, in the Magistrate Court every single day. I walk that three blocks from my office to the courthouse, sometimes about six times a day, and what I hear most from people is parking, like you said, and being apprehended by someone who wants a dollar or a cigarette.

CG: There is the panhandling issue which people are kind of up in arms about as well. That’s a very complex issue to try to solve because there’s a lot of avenues to it. So I don’t know that there is a distinct solution for that one.

GV: There’s not in our community, not right now, and I’ll tell you why. The first argument you hear from everybody is that, nobody asked you for a dollar in Fayetteville; Nobody asked you for a dollar in Lewisburg; Princeton is the same way. But Princeton, Lewisburg, Fayetteville don’t have a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen, and that’s what brings them here. As long as that’s downtown, those people are going to be downtown. There are people that certainly need help, there are. There are a lot of people who need help and I’m for helping those people. I happen to have a unique point of view: I know most of these people. Most of these people have an income [and] they have a home. They’re just out there because you can buy their beer and their drugs this month – they don’t have to. The problem is the public doesn’t know the difference. So when they see someone say, “don’t give that kind of money,” they automatically respond with, “don’t be so mean.” You need to understand who these people are before you give them a dollar. The public can’t do that. People in the system, the police officers, we understand the difference.

CG: Being active and out and about in the downtown area, working down there, do you feel that makes the makes you uniquely qualified, not just Magistrate, but for a position in office in that you have that perspective and those relationships; those connections and you can see in a more defined perspective regarding what needs to be done with those sort of issues?

GV: That’s a very important point. Not just working and living downtown all these years gives me that perspective, but being a bail bondsman for 20 plus years. I have supervised the release and the court appearances of countless people. There are criminals out there who deserve a second chance, there really are. There’s many of them, and there’s people that deserve no more chances. There are people that need to be in the jail and, like they say, there are people that need to be under the jail. You work with them and you understand them and you actually personally know them. All these years, of course I have a unique perspective and some of the other candidates and all the other districts, they’re fantastic people I’m sure, and there are people from all over the walks of life, all all over the place as far as jobs. But working with these criminals and understanding them, chasing them down – I’ve chased them all over the country, brought them back here to jail. No one could have an understanding of what we need like someone in my position.

CG: How important is it to bridge these sort of societal gaps and is that even possible?

GV: It’s not possible with most of the candidates and not just here locally. I’m certainly not a politician. I’m just running for a position that I understand and that, sadly, makes me a politician. I hate to be defined as that. But you know, I’ve been to Charleston, I’ve gone down there, I’ve met with them, I’ve lobbied, I’ve argued with them over laws. I think most people don’t get to do that, and it’s a privilege to do that. If anyone gets that chance, I recommend that they give it a shot, that they go do it.

CG: It seems like regardless of what anyone’s feelings on Donald Trump are, his presidency sort of opened the doors for non-politicians to really get involved. You might argue that that’s positive thing.

GV: I guess it depends on how you look at it. I see that from both directions. I I think that anyone who has an understanding of the position they’re running for should certainly be a qualified candidate. They should certainly get consideration.

CG: That’s a good point because there was a lot of talk of, “The Rock for president” or “Oprah for president.” I don’t believe in electing individuals based on celebrity status, as you should bring a certain amount of qualifications for the job at hand.”

GV: That’s a problem locally as well as nationally, and right now what we’re talking about is our local problems, and you saw that at Future Forward. People show up, they’re running for office because they happen to have the money to file or because they say, “I know a lot of people,” and that’s fantastic, that you know, a lot of people, and you may be a fantastic person. But you need to understand what this position is about. There are six divisions for Magistrate and there are so few candidates who actually know anything about the job? There are candidates that literally called the courthouse and asked, “hey, what does a Magistrate do? What’s their hours, what’s their pay?” and filed for Magistrate. Raleigh County can’t afford that. We just can’t afford to take a step backwards. We cannot. We have a lot of folks who are familiar with their positions.

As a Magistrate, the number one thing to deal with is criminals. But I think that the most important thing is, those of us candidates who actually know these people. When I see one of these people in front of me, I’m not going to be guessing what their deal is because I’ve been working at Walmart for 22 years. I know this guy. I’ve either arrested him, I’ve dealt with him, I know, and that goes back to what we spoke to earlier. People that deserve second chances and people that don’t; Victims out there can’t afford for a bad Magistrate not to understand it though.

CG: The folks who need advocating for, that harms them.

GV: I tell people regularly, if you go home today and your front door is kicked in, your big screen stolen, and your laptop stolen, you’re going to be angry enough. But when you check your neighbor’s doorbell cam and you see the guy that did it was arrested three weeks ago for the exact same thing, how angry are you going to be? That guy shouldn’t have been kicking your door in today. That guy should have been in jail, and that’s what you run into. Only experience can get you there.

CG: One hundred percent. I think a lot of people are experiencing that sort of thing of not feeling heard or not feeling represented.

GV: People are frustrated, the police officers are frustrated. It’s not just victims. I’m glad you brought that up because people will say, “well that cop didn’t…” You gotta stop there. It’s not that officer. There’s always so much that the state will do to these people, and that’s a problem. Again, sometimes that’s not a Magistrate problem, sometimes that’s that’s a state problem.

CG:I wanted to talk a bit about your writing. You’re an author and have had multiple books published, you’ve written for local media. Have you always been a writer? How did you get started in that realm?

GV: I wrote some in high school. I didn’t really have time and I don’t think I focused enough on it in high school. But my teachers told me that I needed to and I just didn’t. Recently, one of the problems with our community, I thought, was that people didn’t know what was going on. Everywhere you go, somebody tells you, “there’s nothing to do in Beckley. There’s nothing to do.” That is not true. There is plenty to do in Beckley. So, I got with the editor of the Raleigh Register Herald and we started an article on what there was to do and it really made a difference. People were coming to events saying, “I didn’t even know about this until we read about it”. We’re trying to change that and let people know that there are businesses out there who bring live music, art shows, you name it, it’s out there.

CG: That’s one thing, before coming into journalism, I was one of those people saying, “there’s nothing going on and there’s nothing to do.” But once you get the right information, there’s stuff everywhere.

GV: Oh, absolutely. Whether you’re into hearing live music, looking at art shows, whether you just want to go out and have a beer and get a special on some wings – somewhere there’s something going on. Every night of the week there’s something from Fayetteville to Princeton, anywhere you can drive to. There’s some of the best barbecue, some of the best hot dogs – you’ve just got to know where to go. We just wanted people to understand that, and that’s beneficial to not just you as a reader, but to the local businesses.

We didn’t write a single article about a chain, they’re always local. But to keep things local, support this community. That’s where you find the best stuff.

CG: Absolutely, and don’t get me wrong, I love Taco Bell as much as anybody. But it’s the hidden gyms where you find the best stuff.

GV: Getting this information out to people, that’s the thing. If people knew all of the things going on here, these events would be packed. And the more you let people know, the more people show up.

CG: Many residents in the area know you. I feel like it’s fair to say you’ve been known to have some strong opinions and to not mince words. Do you believe there are any misconceptions folks might have who may not know you quite as well?

GV: That’s a good question. I’m certain there are misconceptions because being a bail bondsman and having arrested so many people who have fled the jurisdiction, you automatically make enemies of their families, and that’s because of the whole nationwide culture. But the victims come first, right? They always have. Even as a bail bondsman, the victims have come first to me. If you miss court, I will come and get you and I will put you in jail. Period.

CG: Accountability seems like such an issue in every facet of American culture. Nobody wants to be held responsible for anything. Everybody just wants to do what they want to do and some else can pick up the tab, so to speak.

GV: Being soft on crime – it breeds that, you know. If you’re shoplifting tonight, you go to jail, and you’re out tomorrow for nothing or for $50, then you’re shoplifting tomorrow night and the same thing happens to you, why shouldn’t you be accountable? I mean, think about it. Some of these people live rough and jail is not a big problem.They’ll just go, they’ll get out tomorrow. They’ll do it again and again until we stop smacking people on the hand. That’s local and that’s nationwide. Something has got to be done. Victims should come first. I know the jail bill is a problem here and we’re not a rich county. A lot of times paying the jail bill takes precedence over a lot, but it shouldn’t take precedence over victims. Ever.

CG: Are there any final thoughts you want to leave voters with?

If you don’t know me; if you don’t know who you’re voting for; if you know a police officer, ask them who they support. If you know someone in the prosecutor’s office or someone who’s a criminal attorney or who works for a criminal attorney, ask them. If you know someone in the court system, ask them who they’re voting for in District 1. They’re going to tell you I’m the only one with experience in District 1, period. If you don’t know or you’re not really sure, ask somebody that’s involved in the community or somebody who knows.

CG: Where can folks go to find out more about your campaign?

GV: They can go to Facebook – Gary Vaughn for Raleigh County Magistrate . It’s an open page and I will answer any questions I get. I won’t ignore them.