A word to the wise: if you're running for office and want voters to believe a single thing you say, don't make statements during a debate about yourself which can be simply fact-checked and disproven.
Did Republican Jim Tedisco do that at last night's debate? Seems like he might have.
"I've lived, I've worked, I've represented upstate New York as a leader for many years," Tedisco said. "I'm not a millionaire, and I'm never gonna be a millionaire. When I get to the floor of Washington, I'll probably be the poorest person there in Congress."
Here's the thing; when you run for office, you gotta file financial disclosure reports.
And those indicate that Tedisco is, in fact, probably a millionaire.
But according to personal financial disclosure forms (PDF), Tedisco isn't exactly a working-class stiff. The sum of the minimum value of the assets Tedisco reported -- including two addresses in Saratoga Springs -- totals at least $1,426,000. The maximum value is over $3 million.
Tedisco's liabilities, including mortgages on those addresses, range between $400,000 and $850,000.
That sure looks an awful lot like Tedisco's net worth is probably over $1 million.
You'd have to check and make sure, of course, so the Huffington Post tried to do just that.
What's Tedisco's response? Keep attacking Democrat Scott Murphy:
Tedisco campaign staff didn't respond to a request to clarify his net worth. Instead, they stuck to their message.
"As a Wall Street insider, Scott Murphy is a product of the same greedy culture that has sunk our economy and resulted in such scandals as the one that occurred at AIG," wrote Tedisco campaign spokesman Adam Kramer. "Jim Tedisco has been fighting for Upstate working families his whole life because those are his roots."
Right, Jim. It's all Scott Murphy's fault that you lied.