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Candidate recants media attack
By RICHARD DANIELSON © St. Petersburg Times, published October 7, 1998 By the end of Tuesday, however, it was Republican Joe Chillura's own campaign that was issuing apologies and clarifying the record. The release, faxed to Tampa Bay newsrooms Monday evening, mainly attacked the Tampa Tribune for coverage filled with "inaccuracies and untruths" about Chillura's record as a Hillsborough County commissioner and included a dig that "the candidate the Tribune picks usually loses." It also suggested that Chillura's opponent, Democratic Congressman Jim Davis, skipped a recent campaign appearance at a Baptist church because of his "pro-homosexual agenda" and voted against eliminating the federal income tax's marriage penalty because "it would hurt his lawyer and accountant" campaign supporters. Its tone was confrontational, and its language was forceful. One sentence alone was bold-faced, written mostly in capital letters and punctuated with 28 exclamation points. In a telephone interview early Tuesday afternoon, Chillura stood by the release, except for the sentence suggesting that he wouldn't debate Davis because the League of Women Voters, or debate moderator and Tribune columnist Dan Ruth, might leak the questions to Davis in advance. Chillura said his main complaint is that the newspaper won't give him credit for his efforts to lower taxes, has reported incorrectly that he won't debate Davis and supports a "political agenda" that he opposes. "It's really aimed at the whole notion of fair reporting, and if you don't get fair reporting it becomes an issue in the congressional race," Chillura said. "I can tell you that with the exception of that one item" about the League of Women Voters and Ruth, "it can all be documented." Less than an hour later, however, Chillura called back and said he had just read the release "in its entirety." "It does not reflect any blessings by me or (campaign manager) Bill Humphries or (campaign press secretary) Kristin Hasselbach," Chillura said. "I had no idea there was a three-page press release. . . . Some of the things that are in here are defamatory and are not reflective of what I wanted to say." Chillura said the statement was the work of an "overzealous" volunteer who had been asked Tuesday afternoon to leave the campaign. He would not reveal the person's name. "We'd just prefer to leave that person's name confidential," he said. In a separate memo sent out late Tuesday afternoon, Humphries apologized "to anyone or any group who was attacked or offended as a result" of the earlier release. Tuesday afternoon, Tribune senior editor for news Ray Locker said the newspaper's reporters were not tilted against Chillura. "We feel we're doing an accurate and fair job covering Joe Chillura as a county commissioner and as a congressional candidate," he said. In Washington, Davis had not read either release but said he would like to debate Chillura. Chillura recently canceled his appearance at the League of Women Voters debate but has said that he has appeared at about eight candidate forums where Davis didn't show and said he has no aversion to debating Davis. He said Tuesday afternoon that a television debate had been scheduled for Oct. 16, but Davis said his campaign staff didn't know anything about that. "I hope he will . . . agree to a televised debate," Davis said. "I think it provides an excellent opportunity to size up the candidates side by side." The election for the District 11 U.S. House seat is Nov. 3.
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AMPA -- The four-page fax came over on Chillura for Congress stationery and carried the title, "Setting the Media Straight!"
