Help the First Prosecutor on the Scene at Watergate Defeat a Moms for Liberty Candidate
The First Prosecutor on the Scene for the Watergate Break-in
On June 17, 1972, Chuck Work was Chief Assistant US Attorney for the District of Columbia for Local Crimes. At 4:00 am that day he was awakened by a phone call from the DC Chief of Police, informing him there had been a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel. Chuck quickly got dressed and investigated the scene of the crime — the first prosecutor to deal with the case that changed history. He drafted and signed the initial search warrants in the case. He later was promoted to the Senate-approved positions of Deputy Administrator of the Justice Department Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.
There at the Saturday Night Massacre
One year and four months after the break-in, he was at Justice when his friend, Attorney General Elliot Richardson, told him he had been fired by President Nixon because he refused to dismiss Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. He also told him his Deputy William Ruckelshaus, would shortly be fired for the same reason. The next-in-line, Solicitor General Robert Bork, agreed to carry out Nixon’s order. Though Chuck Work and other prosecutors considered resigning in solidarity, Richardson urged them not to for the sake of continuity and the belief that Bork would otherwise be a competent Attorney General.
He continued to work in the administrations of two more Presidents, and was awarded the Rockefeller Public Service Award for his distinguished career, as well as serving as DC Bar President. His wife, Veronica Haggart, served as a commissioner on the US International Trade Commission in the 1980s.
Horrified by January 6
Though still a Republican, in 2016 Chuck was appalled by the rise of Trump and worked for the Hillary Clinton Campaign, canvassing door-to-door with his wife, his son and the son’s girlfriend.
On January 6, 2021, he was watching the January 6 Insurrection on television and like all of us, was horrified by what he saw:
“And so after the demonstration I looked at my wife and said ‘we are no longer Republicans.’ And we went down to the Orange Blossom government center and we changed our registration to Democrats.”
Running as a Democrat
But Chuck Work didn’t just change his registration; he made a commitment to run as Democratic candidate for FL House District 81, hoping to represent the people living in the coastal area from Immokalee Road in north Naples to Marco Island, in the state capital of Tallahassee. David Steinberg, The Paradise Progressive.
His opponent, Yvette Benarroch, is a Moms for Liberty member running on a predictable Trumpist platform opposing immigration, “getting wokeism out of schools and gun rights” and virulently anti-choice. Even though he grew up with guns hunting with his Dad and brother, Chuck is a strong advocate of gun control based in part on a particular experience:
I had a bad experience as an attorney in DC,” he explained. “A young woman was in our office. She was being abused by her husband and as she was being interviewed by a police officer the husband walked in and killed her right in our office.”
He called the duplicitous confirmation testimony on Roe by Kavanagh and Coney Barrett “bullshit,” and was appalled by the Dobbs decision and intensely supports the right of women to choose.
Chuck is one of the more than 50 candidates recruited by 140 Blue Florida and Kossacks’ generous contributions helped fund those who needed assistance with the $1,800 application fee.