Chuck Work. (Photo: Author)
Sept. 15, 2024 by David Silverberg
On Jan. 6, 2021 Charles “Chuck” Work was, like millions of other Americans, watching the certification of the election of Joe Biden as president. Like those millions of Americans, he was horrified to see an inflamed, furious mob attack the United States Capitol and the Capitol Police
But his experience and knowledge and background only intensified the horror he felt.
“All of a sudden on January 6th I was watching this unfold and I started shouting at the TV,” he recalled in an interview with The Paradise Progressive. “Where was the intelligence? Why did they not know this was happening? I considered it a gigantic intelligence failure.”
Work had particular insight into the dynamics and operations of Washington, DC demonstrations.
As a DC-based federal prosecutor in the 1960s and ‘70s, he’d been in charge of prosecuting anti-Vietnam War demonstrators and protecting government buildings, while still providing access to lawmakers and government institutions and allowing demonstrators to express their grievances.
“I knew how [demonstrations] could be properly managed so that people were not hurt, not arrested, people were listened to, members of Congress wanted to talk to them. I knew how that worked when it worked properly,” he said.
In contrast, “One of the problems with this January 6th demonstration was—it was easy to observe—was that the access was all over the place and basically, the Capitol Police were unprepared. And it was just horrible to see. I was sickened by what I saw.
“And so after the demonstration I looked at my wife and a couple of days later we said, ‘We’re no longer Republicans.’ And we went down to the Orange Blossom government center and we changed our registration to Democrats.”
Chuck Work didn’t just change his registration; he made a commitment. Today he is running as the Democratic candidate for Florida 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.
No ordinary Neapolitan
At a 1975 meeting, Chuck Work (left, at lectern) briefs Attorney General Edward Levi, President Gerald Ford and Deputy Attorney General Harold Tyler on a concept for cutting down career criminality, while a staffer looks on. (Photo: Campaign)
In Naples, Fla., dressed casually and enjoying a game of golf, Work might be mistaken for a typical retiree. But that would be wrong.
He’s engaged, alert, articulate and very active. One can see why during his government career he was at the center of history—big history.
He was the prosecutor on the scene when police responded to a break-in at the Watergate Hotel and office complex in 1972. He signed the search warrants that allowed them to investigate the crime.
The reason he was on duty then was because he was the United States attorney who oversaw the prosecution of local crime in the District of Columbia—no small responsibility.
He oversaw the prosecutions of anti-Vietnam War demonstrators, helping to manage the law enforcement response. When Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and the city erupted in riots he was in charge of the legal response.
“We kept the courthouse open for five days 24 hours a day, processing more than a thousand looters; basically, people who tore apart stores and burned part of the city,” he recalls.
Work was again at the center of history when President Richard Nixon attempted to evade justice in what became known as “The Saturday Night Massacre.”
Work was good friends with Attorney General Eliot Richardson. When Nixon ordered Richardson to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, Richardson refused and resigned. When Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox he refused and resigned as well.
Work was one of the Justice Department attorneys who were in the room when Richardson announced that he had resigned. “Some of you will be tempted to follow me but the department has to run and I don’t want you to resign,” Work recalls him saying. “He said, ‘Bob Bork will be a fine attorney general.’” Robert Bork was the third person in the Justice Department hierarchy and the person who ultimately fired Cox.
After the Nixon administration Work went on to serve as deputy administrator of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration of the Justice Department.
After his government service, he joined the prestigious DC law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, where held a succession of senior positions, heading its regulation and government affairs department and ultimately serving as the partner in charge of the DC office.
He also ran in his first election and won, becoming president of the DC Bar Association. In a city housing the highest-powered lawyers in the land with one of the largest Bars in the United States, that was no small achievement.
He met his wife, Veronica Haggart, on a blind date in 1982 when she was a commissioner on the US International Trade Commission. In 1984 she was named director of international trade relations for the electronic giant, Motorola Corp., eventually rising to be vice president, head of government affairs and president of international trade.
“We held presidential appointments in three different Republican administrations; the Nixon administration, the Ford administration and the Reagan administration,” Work explained. “Those were presidential commissions, mine was confirmed by the Senate and so was my wife’s.”
Résumés like those put both spouses in a special class in Washington. It’s not what might be called “royalty” but they’re what were once called “wise men” or perhaps are better called “sages;” people whose knowledge, experience and achievements earn them respect, admiration and influence among lawmakers, policymakers and decisionmakers.
So, when a sage comes out of retirement in a little town like Naples in the Southwest corner of Florida to get involved in its politics, it is significant and not to be taken lightly.
An active non-retirement
In person, sitting on a golf club veranda, Work is relaxed, friendly and very forthcoming.
He and Veronica came to Naples full time after a retirement spent first on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and a winter residence on the Turks and Caicos Islands. They were seasonal condo residents in Naples starting in 2014. When seasonal travel became tiresome, they relocated full time to Naples in 2019, preserving their tropical lifestyle.
And here he could have remained; unburdened and carefree, spending his days with a golf club in one hand and a drink in the other.
But he could not be blind to events around him, especially with the rise of Donald Trump. In 2016 he and his wife contacted the Democratic Party in Naples and did volunteer work for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
“I was never a big Hillary fan, don’t get me wrong, but I hated the idea of Trump being president,” he recalled. “The first thing out of my brain was, ‘This person is completely unqualified.’ So that was my first reaction to Trump. You know, we didn’t know much about him other than he was completely unqualified.
“So, we then went to [Democratic activist] Judy Freiburg and said, ‘What can we do?’ She put us to work canvassing and my wife and I hit 60 doors but I brought my son out, my younger son, and his girlfriend and they stayed with us for like three weeks and they actually worked full time in a little office. The Democrats sent them out to Clewiston. They said, ‘You guys have Clewiston, get everyone you can out there to vote.’”
Like the majority of Americans, Work and his wife were jolted by the results.
“We were, of course, surprised and deeply disappointed that Trump won,” he said, “but we remained Republicans until the insurrection.”
American vs. MAGA
Work’s opponent in District 81 is Yvette Benaroch, a Moms for Liberty owner of a landscaping business in Marco Island who won a bruising primary battle against Councilman Greg Folley. She’s running on a predictable Trumpist platform opposing immigration, “getting wokeism out of schools” and gun rights.
Gun violence is a particularly sensitive issue for Work and one with which he has personal experience.
“I had a very 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.”
That and his experience as a local crime prosecutor make him particularly sensitive to the dangers of gun violence. He’s disturbed by the influence of the gun lobby and supports the need for common sense anti-violence measures. “I’m delighted that Kamala and Tim Walz are making that an important thing to say,” he said.
But that’s not the only issue driving his campaign. He is intensely supportive of the right of women to choose.
“This is a significant right that has been taken away,” he said of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. “Why would you take away a right? I am just livid about the jurisprudence of the Dobbs opinion. And I’m livid about the two-faced, insincere answers that Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh gave [at his confirmation hearing]; Justice [Amy Coney] Barrett was not quite as insincere. It was settled law and they refused to say how they would react. That is such bullshit. It didn’t take much time disposing of the settled law argument when they overruled [Roe v. Wade]. That was so offensive.”
Another key issue for Work and one that he would be able to directly affect in Tallahassee is the loss of home rule, the right of Florida cities, towns and counties to make local rules that directly affect them. Much of this authority has been pre-empted during the course of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) administration.
“Some 80 rules and regulations and acts of the legislature have come into effect that have diluted home rule,” he pointed out and his website calls this “another glaring example of government overreach.” Examples include banning local laws that protect people from working in extremely hot conditions, preventing local leaders from creating citizen review panels for police forces and forbidding the ability to change the minimum wage.
But when it comes to legislating, “The key is working across the aisle” and when sent to Tallahassee that’s exactly what he intends to do, especially on home rule, which transcends political party and ideology.
In contrast to Benaroch, “I would hope people realize that if they send my opponent to Tallahassee, she would just be a rubber stamp. They’d send someone who will toe the party line, who is against reproductive rights, who will not stand up for the local community.”
However, if elected, “I can promise that I will stand up to them, and I will try to make a difference in Tallahassee.”
Ultimately, though, he points out, “I’m a moderate. I believe in middle of the road solutions. I believe in the truth, I believe in expertise, I believe in facts.”
And retired or not, Chuck Work is ready to work again for what he believes.
Liberty lives in light
©2024 by David Silverberg
Veronica Haggart and Chuck Work at a Democratic rally in Naples, Fla. (Photo: Author)