I find it a little disconcerting that I’ve picked a preferred 2008 presidential candidate before a preferred 2007 mayoral candidate. There is something about everyone in the running that rubs me the wrong way. That may say something about my mood right now. It might even say something good about the crop of candidates, in that I don’t hate any one of them enough that I’m willing to overlook negative traits of other candidates in order to defeat them. (I think I’m stretching there, but I figured I should acknowledge the possibility.) But I also think there’s a problem that no one is doing anything to jump up and grab me., and most of the things candidates do for attention just bugs me.
Lately I had been leaning toward Chaka Fattah, because I like the fact that he’s making opportunity for the poor one of his major ideas. But this week he reminded me of one of the things that bugged me about him in the first place, and did so in a way that compounds the problem. Fattah is married to a local news anchor, Renee Chenault-Fattah. Chenault-Fattah has not taken a leave of absence from her anchoring duties, and last I checked she had made no statement about what she would do if Chaka Fattah were elected. I think that just about the only person who can not see this as a major conflict of interest is Aaron Sorkin. (Don’t get me started on The American President. Seriously.) I was starting to not hold that against Chaka Fattah’s candidacy – although I won’t watch Channel 10’s news as long as this conflict of interest persists.
But then this week the Fattah campaign announced that it would not release Fattah’s tax returns. This is a voluntary disclosure, but just about every candidate for citywide or statewide office makes it. Fattah’s campaign claimed that they couldn’t release the data because it would violate a confidentiality clause in Chenault-Fattah’s contract with Channel 10. Only it turns out that there is no such contractual obligation. If I were a diehard Fattah supporter, I’d probably shrug this off as an unfortunate dumb decision. I figure every campaign’s going to make some of those. But when I’m on the fence, it won’t take much to throw me off.
Update: Thursday’s Inquirer reports that there is, in fact, a confidentiality agreement that allows the station to terminate Chenault-Fattah’s contract if there is a breach of confidentiality. The Inquirer says that Chenault-Fattah provided a copy of the contract; on Wednesday the Daily News had reported that NBC10 refused to confirm the existence of such a clause. At the moment I can’t spot anything wrong with the Daily News’s reporting, and I’m a little uncomfortable at how a news outlet like NBC10 winds up having such influence over a story. But that’s the pitfall that comes with this situation.