Senator doesn’t sugarcoat it, and colleagues like it that way

? To find out what Sen. Ed Pugh is thinking, just ask him.

In a world of politicians who make fence-straddling an Olympic sport and political-speak an art form, the self-described “beefy country lawyer” expresses his views without mincing words.

Last week, the Senate voted 32-8 to require registration of beer kegs and their buyers. Pugh of Wamego was the only Republican voting “no.”

“It’s just a bunch of political malarkey,” he said after the vote.

As for his no-frills style, Pugh said, “There’s no reason to speak in riddles. I like to go where it’s at and deal with it.”

A senator since 1997, Pugh, 52, doesn’t play follow the leader and isn’t a go-along, get-along kind of guy, as his vote on the beer-keg bill showed.

“Sometimes I follow the leader if I like the way he’s headed or if it’s the thing to do to make a point,” Pugh said.

Redistricting coup

It was Pugh who offered a state Senate redistricting plan that won the chamber’s approval two weeks ago over the objections of Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, who backed another plan.

Pugh said his plan was drafted by a group of fellow conservative Republicans and the Senate’s minority Democrats, and that he offered it because it was a good idea.

But Sen. Tim Huelskamp, who help draft the plan, said there was another reason why it was Pugh who brought it to the floor.

“You don’t take on Ed Pugh in debate unless you are absolutely certain. He can outspeak anyone in the chamber, and that’s why we had him present it,” said Huelskamp, R-Fowler.

Life’s too short

Sen. Robert Tyson, R-Parker, who goes elk hunting with Pugh, said his friend is direct but often uses humor to make a point.

“He sees life as being too short to be too serious,” Tyson said.

Sometimes Pugh uses humor to make a point outside the Statehouse, too. He recalls that when his law office was gutted by an electrical fire in 1994, the fire chief asked him if he had any enemies.

“I looked at him and said, ‘I’m a lawyer and a politician. What the hell do you think?”‘ he said with a laugh.

On biographical questionnaires, Pugh said that, as a jest, he likes to list his hobbies as “motoring” and “ballroom dancing.”

Even lawmakers who don’t agree with his politics give Pugh high marks, including Senate Judiciary Chairman John Vratil. Pugh is the committee’s vice chairman.

“We disagree on many issues, but he’s very intelligent, very articulate and a strong advocate for the issues he believes in,” said Vratil, R-Leawood. “I actually like him.”

Pugh’s style can be forceful intimidating, some say. But Vratil, also an attorney, sees that style as a lawyer’s advocacy technique.

“Ed Pugh is the master of intimidation to get his way,” Vratil said. “He’s just trying to make a point.”

Less is more

Although a lawmaker, Pugh would like to see fewer laws made.

“We’d be far better off if we allowed laws to be settled and let the courts interpret them. As long we keep changing them, nobody knows what they mean,” he said. “The more laws you write, the less personal freedoms you have.”

It’s a view that fairly reflects those of many constituents in his Northeast Kansas district a healthy skepticism, if not outright distrust, of government.

“I see myself as the kind of Republican I grew up around government should be limited and personal freedoms maximized. Government isn’t the answer to everything,” he said.

With a round face, bushy mustache and wire-rimmed glasses, Pugh bears more than a passing resemblance to Theodore Roosevelt.

“Oh, I’ve had people say that. I laugh at it, though. He was a lot more industrious than I am,” Pugh said.

Pugh grew up in Wamego where his father was an attorney. As a youngster, he enjoyed hunting, fishing and camping, and worked summers on farms, at greenhouses and the elevator.

After finishing law school at the University of Kansas, Pugh returned to his rural roots, working as Pottawotomie County attorney before going into private practice.

“I went back because of the quality of life. I like the quality of the people. I get the willies after about an hour in a city,” said Pugh, who is married and has three children in college and one child in high school.

As he sees it, rural America is a repository of the work ethic he feels so strongly about.

“You learn to work and take responsibility,” he said. “You associate with all sorts of people, and that’s a valuable thing. A sense of duty and obligation gets instilled in you.”

When he’s not at the Statehouse or his law office, Pugh raises cattle, but stopped short of calling himself a rancher.

“I’m a lawyer who has a bunch of cattle. I don’t claim to be part of the ranching fraternity. I don’t know if they would accept me,” he said.

“It’s a good way to lose money,” he added, “but you know, it has a romance to it.”