Aug. 7th, 2003The issue of Tom Daschle's residency came up in an ad run by
Club for Growth. They imply because he bought an expensive house (is there any other kind in DC?) that he no longer cares about South Dakota.
Aug. 13, 2003 Talon News put this on it's website:
August 2003 Google cache only-grab it now if you want it.
Daschle Claims Questionable Tax Credit for DC Home
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
August 13, 2003
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Sen. Tom Daschle's (D-SD) new Washington home has been giving the Senate minority leader headaches of late. Last week, Club for Growth, the Washington-based, anti-tax group, began airing ads in South Dakota that imply the senator's "very, very, very big house" purchased in April for $1.9 million betrays his down-home image.
Now another controversy surrounding the palatial French colonial on Washington's exclusive Foxhall Road has emerged. A Talon News search of DC property records revealed that Daschle is receiving the homestead tax
credit.
The name of the street was in the television ad, and Gannon used it too.
Who is the Club for Growth? An anti-tax group that claims they want to support Reagan Republicans who believe in small government.
October 15, 2003
This is also only available in the Google cache, but this is when it
spread like a virus to other right wing blogs. Cache only-grab it quick.
Daschle's South Dakota Residency In Question
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
October 15, 2004
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) may have forfeited his South Dakota residency last year when he and his wife purchased a $2 million home in an exclusive Washington, DC neighborhood. The Senate minority leader declared the mansion to be his "principal place of residence" when he applied for a property tax credit intended to help DC homeowners cope with sky-rocketing property values in the city.
The District of Columbia allows a $30,000 deduction against a property's tax assessment for the calculation of taxes. The senator's tax savings is less than $1,000 a year.
Talon News first raised questions about the credit in August 2003 following a search of property tax records. At the time, Tony Bullock, a spokesman for DC Mayor Anthony Williams told Talon News that the property qualified for the homestead exemption because the senator's wife, Linda Daschle, a powerful Washington lobbyist and a co-owner of the property, was a city resident and taxpayer. But a document recently obtained by Talon News tells a different story.
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Talon News, the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue provided a copy of the April 28, 2003 application for the tax break. The affidavit section of the application bears only the signature of "Thomas A. Daschle." Additionally, by checking a box marked "Yes," the senator agreed that he would be subject to DC income tax. Linda Daschle's signature does not appear on the document.
In signing the affidavit, Daschle declared under penalty of either a $1,000 fine or imprisonment of up to 180 days or both, that the property is eligible for the deductions. The qualification for the tax credit is specifically for a property to be an "owner-occupied principal place of residence."
It would appear that Daschle voluntarily surrendered his residency in South Dakota with his April 2003 declaration. Under state statute, Daschle would no longer be eligible to hold elective office in South Dakota or represent it in Washington.
Under South Dakota law, Daschle's seat became vacant upon executing the affidavit designating Washington, DC as his domicile. SDCL 3-4-1(5) stipulates that vacancy occurs when an officeholder ceases "to be a resident of the state, district, county, township, or precinct in which the duties of his office are to be exercised or for which he may have been elected."
Article 1, Section 3, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution states, "No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen."
Since the FOIA request was filed on September 29, 2004, the DC Tax and Revenue web site has been updated to indicate that the Daschle property is "Not receiving the Homestead Deduction." Any amendment to the application for the deduction should have been included in the documents obtained by the FOIA request. No such documents, required to change the tax status of the property were provided.
The senator's office did not return calls for comment on Thursday.
Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
After Oct. 15th it was picked up in:
*National Review , October 22, 2004, Friday, National Review Online, 1269 words, Home Is Where the Tax Break Is, By Meghan Clyne
*Aberdeen American News (South Dakota) , October 21, 2004 Thursday, A; Pg. 5, 407 words, Daschle's state of residency questioned; Senator, wife, daughter file absentee ballots, By Scott Waltman
I was not searching for Talon/Daschle stories, but that was darn near all I found. Both of these articles were picked up by many right wing blogs and "news" websites, who all crowed about Gannon's "scoops." From there the MSM picked them up.
Club for Growth is well funded, obviously. The first anti-Daschle television ad they ran was in January 2002. For a 2004 race. They also ran two other anti-Daschle ads in Aug. & Oct. 2003. Did CfG (based in DC) help Gannon in any way, either thru encouragement or actually handing him all the info and letting him put his name on it? I don't know.
What I'm asking now is, how does a guy with no journalism background get hired for a startup news site owned by a big contributor to republicans, be the Washington Bureau Chief, get a WH press pass, and within a few months have some of his stories picked up in the national regional press, when most of what he posts are slightly reworded press releases?
Gannon claimed on CNN Thursday afternoon that GOPUSA and Talon News had common ownership, but that was all. No connection between them. If Gannon was paid to write for Talon, wouldn't that make Eberle, the elite Republican-Texan GOP supporter, Gannon's boss? How are they NOT connected?
As a side note, there may be a good reason all of Talon's articles have disappeared from their website. They had many stories from cities all over the world, written by their volunteers. Like these two:
Jakarta
Indonesian Official Calls U.S. 'Terrorist King'
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
September 4, 2003
JAKARTA , INDONESIA ( Talon News) -- Speaking in opposition to his country's stated view on the war on terrorism on Wednesday, the vice-president of Indonesia called the United States the "terrorist king" for going to war against Iraq.
AND
Berlin
Depp Criticizes America, Bush On Foreign Soil
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
September 4, 2003
BERLIN (Talon News) -- On Wednesday, another popular entertainer in the United States chose to criticize President George W. Bush and America on foreign soil.
Notice the date? Both say Sept. 4, 2003. Does he have a time machine? Teleporter? No, just ignorance of the law. You see, someone was in Jakarta to report the story, and someone was in Berlin to cover the second story. Those articles are reworded versions of stories from UPI, AP, Reuters, etc... These are copyright violations. Since the entire website has been cleaned out, I'd guess some lawyers are involved.
Let's see, four articles a day (the press gaggles Gannon covered don't count since he was really there), everyday, from April 2003 to Jan. 2005, might be as many as 1,760 violations.
(I've seen the links offered in the other diary-much appreciated. Lots more to do.)