Luke Puckett Offers Assistance To Charlie Rangel

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is facing public pressure from both the left and right to step down from his chairmanship as ethics investigations into his use-and possible abuse-of his office continue and more and more ethical lapses come to light. So far, Rep. Rangel has admitted that he has failed to pay $10,000 in taxes on income from a villa that he owns in the Dominican Republic. Rep. Rangel’s excuse is that every time he tried to work with his Dominican business partners they “started speaking Spanish” to him.

Joe Donnelly has accepted $5,000 from Rangel’s personal political action committee and yesterday he voted against a House measure that would have required Rangel to step down while the ethics investigations are under way. Is it possible that a $5,000 contribution is interfering with Donnelly’s pledge to bring ethics reform to Washington? Perhaps Donnelly should return the $5,000 to Rangel so Rep. Rangel can look into whether or not he can use that money to pay his tax bill.

Luke Puckett, because of his humanitarian work in Central and South America, fluently speaks Spanish. It may be that voters in the 2nd Congressional District should vote for Mr. Puckett in part because he will be able to help Rep. Rangel understand what his foreign business partners are saying and avoid ethical and legal lapses of this sort in the future.

Speaking of the entire situation, Luke Puckett said “I would gladly help Mr. Rangel understand what his business partners are saying if I am elected and I trust that Mr. Donnelly will do his part in returning the $5,000 contribution made to him from this ethically challenged Democratic congressman’s PAC.”