Petrelis Files

That Mr. Pates of the SF Chronicle certainly is a giving man.

We know he made many contributions to local and federal candidates, but, now there new information on donations he made to a candidate for Washington State governor. His most recent donation to her was in June.

Michael Stoll of Grade The News has written extensively on Pates' donations and the Chronicle response, and his stories can be found at http://www.stanford.edu/group/gradethenews/.

Pates has clearly made quite a number of contributions, and I wonder if know about all of his political donations. For all we know, he's also written out checks to candidates and cause in NY or MA or IL.

Here's a suggestion for the Chronicle: increase transparency and disclose all political donations from editorial staff on the paper's web site.

Let readers make up their minds as to whether the political giving in any way influenced coverage, by giving us a list of donations.

Editors should survey all editorial employees about any political contributions in the past three years.

The listings below come from the Public Disclosure Commission of Washington.

Check out their web site at: http://www.pdc.wa.gov/searchdatabase/.


Candidate/Committee Date Amount Contributor City State Zip Employer Occupation

GREGOIRE CHRISTINE O
11/03/2003
$118.00
PATES WILLIAM SAN FRANCISCO CA 94133
SF CHRONICLE JOURNALIST

GREGOIRE CHRISTINE O
06/07/2004
$100.00
PATES WILLIAM SAN FRANCISCO CA 94133
SF CHRONICLE JOURNALIST