DFL hits Emmer on his seven mortgages in eight years
Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 1:15 pm
- 4 Comments
DFL chair Brian Melendez questioned the finances of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer at a press conference on Thursday. According to public documents, Emmer has taken out seven separate mortgages on his Delano home for a total value of $1.6 million. Melendez said the DFL is raising the issue because Emmer frequently uses the phrase “live within your means” on the campaign trail.
“We are all aware of Tom Emmer’s favorite campaign slogan, ‘live within your means,’” said Melendez, “but Emmer’s slogans and the public record don’t match up.”
Melendez said that information from the Wright County Auditors Office and Hennepin County show that Emmer has taken out seven short-term mortgages since 2002 on his house in Delano and six additional mortgages on a home he previously owned in Independence.
News of Emmer’s series of mortgages was first reported a month ago by Sally Jo Sorensen at the Hutchinson-based website Bluestem Prairie, but — despite that site framing the issue in terms of Emmer’s “live within your means” slogan — Melendez denied that that’s where the party got the information. Bluestem also noted that in November 2005, foreclosure proceedings were started against Emmer. They were later dropped.
Melendez said that Emmer should release his tax returns as his opponent Mark Dayton has done.
“I’m not faulting Emmer for using his house as an ATM; many Minnesotans have done the same thing,” said Melendez. “I’m asking Mr. Emmer to be more forthright about his personal finances and his plans for the state’s finances.”
“Emmer needs to answer questions about his own finances before anybody lets him run the state’s,” he said.
Emmer’s campaign told the Star Tribune simply, “He’s paid his bills.”
GOP deputy chair Michael Brodkorb called the line of attack a mistake in a tweet. “Big mistake by the Minnesota DFL today — attacking someone for having a mortgage on their home — contrast with Dayton’s taxfree trusts in SD
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter4 Comments
Comment posted October 21, 2010 @ 5:59 pm
Please don’t give the man grief ’cause don’t you know he is entitled to rule?
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 10:17 am
I believe that with Emmer making taxation his key issue, or one of his few key issues, there should be disclosure of what loopholes and avoidances he uses to minimize his own taxes.
Dayton’s been honest about it.
Horner, with the PR firm ties claimed to have been severed, same thing. Show the tax returns and indicate what income might be installment payment from a buyout of his position in the PR firm. If the bulk of his cash flow is still from the firm, that way, how independent of its prosperity with future, existing and past clients, is Horner?
And has Horner used loopholes and avoidances? Will Emmer and Horner, if they make disclosure, be shown to be rich but paying proportionately less than most middle class voters?
We would only be able to judge that were there to be disclosure.
Should voter sentiment for seeing tax disclosure reach to the Bachmann and Clark families, for instance, in a congressional race? With Bachmann being so vocal about middle class tax burden, is her family middle class, and what’s her family’s burden, compared to Joe and Jane Average?
In other congressional races, same question – should candidates be routinely expected to disclose tax returns, or would it have too chilling an effect on willingness to run? There is no simple answer to that, and opinions are worth little to nothing objectively on the question of chilling effect. I expect most people have gut feelings about the privacy – vs – informed electorate situation.
Comment posted October 23, 2010 @ 7:48 pm
Figures. Liberals apply class war when they get desperate. Minnesotans are tired of liberals lifting one another up, by putting others down. Karma will not be forgiving.
Comment posted October 24, 2010 @ 12:35 pm
“Dayton’s been honest about it.”
Has Dayton admitted that he doesn’t earn his income, but that he lives on a tax-sheltered trust fund? Of course not.
It’s easy for a politician to advocate higher taxes when he doesn’t earn a living himself.
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