Critical Reasoning

Journalist: Well-known businessman Arnold Bergeron has long been popular in the state, and he has often talked about running for governor, but he has never run. However, we have just learned that Bergeron has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for candidacy by submitting a detailed list of his current financial holdings to the election commission. So, it is very likely that Bergeron will be a candidate for governor this year.

The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the journalist's argument?

A.Has anybody else who has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for the upcoming election reported greater financial holdings than Bergeron?
B.Is submitting a list of holdings the only way to fulfill the election commission's financial disclosure requirements?
C.Did the information recently obtained by the journalists come directly from the election commission?
D.Have Bergeron's financial holdings increased in value in recent years ?
E.Had Bergeron also fulfilled the financial disclosure requirements for candidacy before any previous gubernatorial elections?

OA: E

can someone explain this in details? tks a lot!

I trimmed my options to B and E. And ended up marking B.

When i look at the stimulus, it clearly mentions "Bergeron has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for candidacy". So I am wondering if answer to option B is clearly mentioned as NO in the stimulus itself. If it is mentioned then we can eliminate option B as well.


Thoughts?

I narrowed down to b and e but chose e.

I go for B.

Journalist: Well-know businessman Arnold Bergeron has long been popular in the state, and he has often talked about running for governor, but he has never run. However, we have just learned that Bergeron has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for candidacy by submitting a detailed list of his current financial holdings to the election commission. So, it is very likely that Bergeron will be a candidate for governor this year.

The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the journalist's argument?

(A) Has anybody else who has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for the upcoming election reported greater financial holdings than Bergeron?
(B) Is submitting a list of holdings the only way to fulfill the election commission's financial disclosure requirements?
(C) Did the information recently obtained by the journalist come directly from the election commission?
(D) Have Bergeron's financial holdings increased in value in recent years?
(E) Had Bergeron also fulfilled the financial disclosure requirements for candidacy before any previous gubernatorial elections?

This CR links FULFILLING THE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS to RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR.
The correct answer must help us determine whether this link is valid.
In other words, the correct answer will either STRENGTHEN or WEAKEN the link between FULFILLING THE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS and RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR.

When the answer choices are phrased as questions, rephrase them as STATEMENTS.

Answer choice E, rephrased: Before previous gubernatorial elections, Bergeron had also fulfilled the financial disclosure requirements for candidacy.
Since Bergeron did not run for governor in these previous elections, this answer choice BREAKS THE LINK between fulfilling the financial disclosure requirements and running for governor.

The correct answer is E.