Ohio native hopes to receive nomination in May primary, wants to serve others if elected

A District 5 State Senate candidate will run for the first time in the May primary election.

"I'd like to get into a position where I can be bettering things for people," said Democrat Scott "Cody" Regan, District 5 State Senate candidate. "Politics is perfect because I can serve other people and improve things."

Regan said he has been a part of the community. He learned the importance of helping people from his mother, Hope Regan, who passed away in 2006 of Alzheimer's disease.

"I had one of those mothers who wanted to go out and do something with her life and she did," Regan said. "I always watched her and how she was very supportive of people."

Regan, originally from Ohio, said he has lived all over the world. He classified himself as an international entrepreneur because he has worked all over the world. He has been a part of 11 industries and has run about 15 companies.

"I started my first business in 1974 when I was coming out of high school and went to college," he said. "I was working 20-22 hours a day most of my life because I love it. It wasn't out of necessity, it was cause I loved it."

Regan said he has worked with fine arts and consulting companies.

"I was actually trained as an artist and there are works of mine around the world but I don't look at that as my main thing anymore," he said.

Regan said he also served as a board chairman with the selected services and did a lot with the draft. He said even though it is not active, it has always been the very efficient part of the government. He also has participated in the local government.

"Whenever I have been in a community and I am not just focused on my company I always took the time to do everything I could in the local government without taking office because I just never had complete time to devote to it," he said.

Regan has wanted to run in an election for a long time and several years ago decided he would run for U.S. Senate in the state of West Virginia, he said. 

"We just weren't getting in the funds for the U.S. Senate campaign because that's like a $10 million to $20 million fundraiser," he said. "So when I didn't see the funds, I said lets just go for State Senate, which we're doing."

Regan is now settled in Salt Rock, W.Va. and has started a project called Together Green. The project finds old homes and trailers for people who want to build new homes or make repairs but don't have the funds to do it, he said.

"Anything that can be recycled or be put into repair can be put into building homes or building garages and that's at no cost," he said. "This way it gets people to work from the ground up, it removes buildings that are unnecessary or unwanted and we are making an impact."

If Regan were to win and take office he said he wants to see the nondiscrimination in employment act pass in this state.

"I mean this is 2010," he said. "There is no reason, in this country, that everyone shouldn't have equal rights in employment. They should be able to go to their jobs and not have a oppressive, repressive place. They should have the freedom to do their jobs as productively as possible and have good relationships with the workers."

By getting the act passed it will greatly cut down the cost of lawsuit issues and problems throughout the state, he said. Then there will be less funding needed for these issues.

"Another thing I would like to see is Marshall University, both the students, faculty and administration, open up and not be as much as an exclusive entity in Huntington but rather become part of Huntington," he said. "I have lived all over the world, I grew up in a university town and I really have never seen a school as separated from a town as I have with Marshall and the city of Huntington."

Regan said he would also fight corruption and the illegal drug problem as well as other issues that are feeding off of Huntington.

"I'd also like to see Huntington change from being the number one city of hate crime to a city of equality and graciousness for everyone," he said. "I think that's a major problem and I'd like to see that change."

Regan said people should vote for him because he will serve the people and if elected to office he would do his job, not spend his time focused on re-election. He said he would specifically be in office to make this a better state.

"I have absolutely nothing to lose in life so I can be a little bit different than most politicians," he said.  "I can truly be out-spoken. I can be there for people and I fight for things."

Tess Moore can be contacted at moore231@marshall.edu.