With the disastrous campaign rollout for Indiana Republican Dan Coats this past two weeks, it looked like someone had finally eclipsed former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr. for the title of worst campaign rollout in the 2010 campaign cycle.
Apparently, Harold is not letting his title go without a fight:
Earlier this week, John Cook of Gawker asked the campaign of Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency whether Ford, despite living in Manhattan since 2007, had ever filed a state tax return.
It took a few days, but Ford's LIEberman flack Tammy Sun got back to Cook with the shocking answer -- "No."
Ford evidently claimed to work entirely out of Merrill Lynch's office in Nashville (where there is no income tax), and arranged to have his untold multi-million dollars in salary and bonuses paid there.
There is simply no good direction for Ford to go on this one. Ford has built his entire campaign apparatus in New York (where he is flirting with a primary challenge to freshman Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand) on the premise that he left Tennessee for his "new home" in New York City a few years back. Either he lied about that, and has never left Tennessee except to make a few bucks, or he is a "transplant to New York" who has evaded taxes.
Even if, somehow, his lawyers and accountants can find legality in claiming Tennessee residency while maintaining an office (and, at least, some public profile) in New York, the political opportunity costs for him here are frighteningly steep. It is going to be hard to hammer your opponent on...say...tax reform when your personal definition of tax reform is apparently not to claim residence in the state where you live, work, and are seeking election.
Especially interesting since in an appearance yesterday in Buffalo (where he is courting the endorsement of Mayor Byron Brown), Ford said that "Jobs, taxes, the economy, [are] foremost on people's minds everywhere."
If taxes weren't "foremost" on the minds of the New York electorate before this revelation, they probably will be in the near future.