Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE LENGTH: Long
After stumping with her father one evening last month, Rob Hagan's 8-year-old daughter, Sarah, was a little stumped herself at his campaign rhetoric.
``Daddy, why do you talk like that?'' the girl asked as they left the door of an Apple Tree Village residence in Cloverdale. ``Why don't you just be yourself?''
Within those questions lies the crux of Hagan's problems as he seeks re-election for a second term as Botetourt County's commonwealth's attorney.
``I'm a very private person in a very public job,'' he said. ``On a personal level, I am a very shy person and I've had to learn to greet people. It's difficult to meet people in a brief encounter and ask for your job back.''
That's a skill that Hagan has had to develop quickly this year as he faces his first contested election: a challenge from Joel Branscom, a Republican who is a senior assistant to Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Don Caldwell.
Branscom's campaign has touted him as having more experience than Hagan, who bristles at the notion that Branscom is a better lawyer.
``It makes my blood boil,'' Hagan said. ``I've watched Joel come along as a young prosecutor. He is not my senior.''
Hagan said Branscom's claims of being a big-time criminal attorney hold little relevance to the Botetourt County job.
In 15 years, Botetourt has had only about a dozen murder cases.
The job of commonwealth's attorney in Botetourt is a far cry from the glut of criminal cases seen in Roanoke, Hagan said. In Botetourt, a prosecutor is just as likely to talk to someone about a problem they're having with a contractor or with a neighbor who's letting water run onto the person's land.
``We have a low crime rate,'' Hagan said. ``We spend more time serving people outside the courtroom.''
In order to enhance that service, Hagan has added a part-time victim-witness coordinator during his first term in office. He also persuaded the state to fund the Botetourt County prosecutor's job as a full-time position.
Before that, Hagan received a part-time salary for prosecuting and held down a private law practice on the side. He said his work on the defense side of the courtroom makes him a better trial lawyer.
Hagan's campaign symbol is his ever-present bow tie. He switched to it several years ago because he kept snagging his neckties on his desk.
When it comes to deciding which candidate is the better lawyer, there's no tie, he says - he is.
Branscom has served only as a prosecutor for his 10 years in Roanoke, Hagan said.
``As a career government employee, Joel doesn't understand what it is to work past 5 o'clock,'' Hagan said.
He said his mother, Lilian, instilled in him a work ethic that he carries with him.
For instance: She started working as a volunteer with the Skyline Girl Scout Council. A short time later, she was playing a lead role on the organization's board of directors.
When she got involved in the PTA, she ended up on the Roanoke School Board.
``When she saw a job to be done, she committed herself,'' Hagan said.
Her son learned that sometimes making a commitment can be painful, such as the time he lined up as a 140-pound nose guard on the 1969 Patrick Henry High School football team.
It seems that Andrew Lewis High School countered with a 200-pound, all-state center named Reid McClure.
``I learned a lesson in humility that I never forgot,'' Hagan said. ``He wiped me all over the field.''
Hagan's father, a doctor, taught his children that humility was a virtue.
When the late Robert Hagan Sr. visited patients in the poor sections of town, he often took his son along.
While his father attended to his patients, Hagan would play with the neighborhood children out in the street.
``He would treat everyone with profound respect and dignity,'' Hagan said of his father. ``The only time he got angry was if he detected a hint of bigotry, prejudice or self-pride.''
Hagan said the commonwealth's attorney's job lets him continue his parents' mission of community service.
``I don't have a calling to save the world and reform democracy,'' he said. ``I do have a calling to serve the public. It is that passion that drives me as a trial lawyer.''
Hagan developed his taste for the legal profession in 1975, when he worked in the Washington office of then-Rep. Caldwell Butler. Hagan had dropped out of Davidson College, and was preparing to enter the University of Virginia, where he would graduate with a degree in philosophy.
Butler's job offer came while Hagan was working as a truck driver for Lendy's Restaurant - delivering strawberry pies and fresh chickens.
``I've known Rob all his life,'' Butler said. ``Anything I knew about him was good, including his professional abilities.''
Butler, a lifelong Republican, said Hagan, a Democrat, does have one shortcoming. ``I'm disappointed that I didn't sell him on the Republican philosophy,'' he said.
Hagan said Virginia Republicans have simply moved too far to the right for his taste. The Republican Party his parents voted for strongly supported public education and racial equality, he recalled.
But, he said, it is properly left to the voters to decide which candidate reflects their ideas.
``Privately, it is hell for me,'' he said about having to campaign to keep his job. ``Publicly, it is good for the community. Democracy does work.''
ROB HAGAN
Age: 41
Family: Married, two children
Employment: Botetourt County commonwealth's attorney
Hobbies: Running, hunting, fishing and reading local history and poetry
Experience: 15 years in the prosecutor's office: 11 as assistant, and the past four as commonwealth's attorney in Botetourt County
Platform: Proven law enforcement
Keywords:
POLITICS PROFILE
by CNB