About Chuck Shiflett...

A ninth generation Georgian and native of Cedartown in Polk County, Chuck has lived in Bartow County for more than 30 years. During that time he has owned or operated several local businesses.
 
A self-described news junkie, Chuck began reading newspapers by age 5 and was also an avid viewer of television newscasts. In 1968, at age 8, he created flyers supporting Richard Nixon for President and went door to door around his neighborhood campaigning.
 
His love of politics carried over into adulthood, when he became active in the Republican Party in the 1980's. Chuck held various offices within the party including County Chairman and State Committeeman. Over the years, Chuck worked on or helped manage a number of political campaigns from local to congressional to statewide offices. He also served as a Community Liaison for the late U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell.

In 1994 he became the first Republican elected to public office in Bartow County since Reconstruction, winning a countywide seat on the Bartow County Board of Education in a major upset. He later became vice-chairman and then chairman of the board. During this time Chuck also served on the Board of Directors of the Cartersville-Bartow Chamber of Commerce, and coached youth baseball for a number of years.

He placed his business interests on autopilot for a while and served fulltime as the Communications Director of the Georgia Republican Party. In 2000, Chuck was the Republican nominee for Georgia State Senate District 52 against 10-year Democrat incumbent Richard Marable, but lost in a close race with Chuck carrying Bartow County and Marable carrying the larger Floyd County.

Chuck still does some occasional campaign consulting, but decided to spend more time writing opinion pieces for various publications including a five-year stint writing a Sunday political column for the Cartersville Daily Tribune News. He also recorded a weekly radio commentary and has done some work as a substitute talk radio host. A lifelong conservative, in recent years Chuck's political philosophy has taken on more of a Libertarian flavor.
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Married to his college sweetheart, Sandra King, for more than 30 years, she and Chuck have two sons, C.J. and Cameron. Sandra is a native of Bartow County and her family has a long history there.

In addition to his business and political endeavors, Chuck plays basketball, lifts weights, is an avid reader, loves to pretend he's a weatherman, studies health & nutrition, does some audio engineering, songwriting, and plays drums. Chuck played drums for a couple of Christian bands in the 1980's and 1990's, though he started out as lead singer of a local north Georgia rock group in the late 1970's.

He collects music CDs and has almost 6,000... all filed away alphabetically. He also enjoys home improvement and landscaping projects for fun. He and Sandra each like genealogical research and he's been able to trace some direct lines back to the 900s AD. Many times Chuck has been accused of being the poster child for adult ADD... having his fingers in too many pies.