Chuck's Ethics Train Derailed, Not Wrecked

Recently, this website has called for Chuck Reed to release information regarding his charitable donations. The fear that many had was that after Chuck E. Cheapskate was reimbursed with public funds for over $39,000 worth of political, religious, and personal donations, that some of these were later written off as tax deducations. Apparently, Cindy Chavez volunteers had been asking voters to keep this concern in mind while phonebanking.

We were wrong.

According to today's Merc article, the receipts were reviewed by the Mercury News one week and a half ago. Apparently, they were legitimate.

Chuck proceeds to call the previous questions raised about his deductions "a lie".

As my grandma likes to say, hold your horses there. Chavez volunteers asked voters to inquire of Reed why his full tax information was not disclosed. That sounds more like a request to clear up ambiguity than a lie. Chuck - you created this whirlwind of controversy by your ethical miscues. You cannot play the privacy card when you have abused the public's trust and later are asked to clear things up. You owed it to the public to make this information public. Now you've politicized it by calling your opponent a liar.

This issue was on a lot of people's minds. Look at the comments on our blog and your blog (San Jose Inside) for reference. The Merc wouldn't have printed an article about it today if it weren't something being buzzed about. True, you showed the Merc the controversial information. But you can't blame Chavez and Stone for the paper's failure to report that information.

Why didn't you send out a letter to the Chavez campaign explaining that the info had been disclosed to the Merc and there were no legal transgressions? She has written you letters. Yet you prefer to blast her campaign in the media after the fact.

Why didn't you at least explain this issue on your "Reality Check" section of your website?

The Reed drones seem to be claiming that this is a victory for his campaign. But in reality, this means that the Reed ethics train has not been wrecked... only derailed.