Senator Lorraine Wojahn

telling it like it is.” I said, “They double-crossed
me and I don’t want to hurt them, but I’m not
going to be there to help them. But I will never
vote against a working man or an injured
workman.”
Ms. Kilgannon: So you separated out working
people’s issues from union politics?
Sen. Wojahn: Then I became chairman of the
Commerce Committee, which is diametrically
opposed to labor. It doesn’t have to be.
Ms. Kilgannon: You came in as part of the
minority party. Your leader in those days was
John O’Brien and you already knew him, it
sounds like?
Sen. Wojahn: Yes. Not well, but I knew John.
Ms. Kilgannon: How did you feel about him?
Was he a good leader?
Sen. Wojahn: Oh, yes. Very good. He should
never have ever lost an election, you know. He
was a good leader.
Representative Wojahn entered the Legislature already acquainted with such leaders as Robert
Charette, Speaker Don Eldridge & former Speaker John O’Brien
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Ms. Kilgannon: And it sounds like you already
knew the organization leader, Robert Charette.
And then the caucus chair, Bill Chatalas. Did
you know him before?
Sen. Wojahn: Oh, yes. I knew him well.
Ms. Kilgannon: When I look at these lists of
who was in leadership, it seems like, other than
John O’Brien, these were all rising people –
they had been assistants, previously.
Sen. Wojahn: Everybody gets a title.
Ms. Kilgannon: They have all these titles that
sound a little ambiguous to me. Gary Grant,
Richard King and Mark Litchman, they all had
the same title. Did you know any of them?
Sen. Wojahn: I knew them all because I’d
lobbied them.
Ms. Kilgannon: And then, of course, Ted
Bottiger.
Sen. Wojahn: I knew Ted very well because I