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RichardChumneyCT2 karma

Thank you all so much for doing this. The Washington Post has been a staple of my house since I was very young, it truly is one of the reasons I want to be a journalist. Having the incredible privilege of helping with a Washington Post story last November only increased my enthusiasm for journalism.

I write for my college paper and have recently come across a unique story that has thrown up some challenges for me. I hope you might be able to give me some advice on how to proceed with the story.

The gist of the story is that county lawmakers recently approved the sale of an old high school property to two local businessmen. The sale is fairly controversial in this area, residents hoped the space would remain public and were upset to learn it would be used for a private development.

After going through campaign finance disclosures I discovered that the two businessmen have given thousands of dollars in donations (in-kind donations in the form of rent free office space) to the party of the lawmakers who approved the sale.

The party used the office space owned by the businessmen as campaign headquarters in the months leading up to the 2015 and 2016 Virginia elections. The 2015 donations were disclosed by the party, but the 2016 donations have yet to be disclosed. I only confirmed that the businessmen provided office space in 2016 from a party official yesterday.

For the past week I have tried to contact the chairman of the county Board of Supervisors (who oversaw the sale) and the businessmen who won the bid to purchase the property. Every time I call I get a voicemail and I have yet to receive a call back. I am concerned that my status as a student journalist made the county chairman and the businessmen less concerned about getting back to me. How could I better approach contacting these individuals. And is there a way you would propose framing the story?