After lingering for months without really going anywhere, the story of New Hampshire Republican House candidate Frank Guinta's mystery money is getting some more serious attention.
New Hampshire Public Radio is also making a serious effort to unpick Guinta's explanations.
Could the more than $350,000 Guinta lent his campaign from a previously undisclosed account have come from real estate investments, as he's suggested? Says NHPR:
Since 2001, Guinta has owned four residential properties in Manchester. He was able to buy low and sell high. When he sold one property, most of the gain went into the next house. We estimate, on terms favorable to Guinta, that after all was said and done, he might have made about 43 thousand dollars from these transactions.
One property has three apartments. Based on interviews with real estate agents, over the past five years, that building might have produced net rental income of 52 thousand dollars, for a grand total of $95,000 dollars from real estate.
How about insurance consulting, another of Guinta's named sources?
In the mid-1990’s, soon after college, Guinta worked as a Claims Manager. The average salary in that field today is about 40,000 dollars. Then he had two stints as an insurance consultant. One before he went back to school and one afterwards. He left that last consulting job to become a staffer to Representative Jeb Bradley for about 55,000 dollars. On the face of it, it is not obvious that this work experience would generate the hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings Guinta would need to substantiate his claim.
One other possibility: seems Guinta's parents sold a second home for $820,000 not long before he declared his candidacy. Noting that a gift from his parents would be legal only if it was not intended to help with his electoral campaign, NHPR asked about it:
JG: Did your parents gift you a great deal of money?
GUINTA: I’m going to focus on the issues of economy, and jobs, and moving this country forward.
JG: Did your parents gift you a great deal of money?[pause] I didn’t hear an answer.
GUINTA: I’ve already addressed the matter that you’re trying to talk about.
JG: And you’re not answering the question yes or no.[pause]
How's that for a non-denial? Again, this is where a bank statement would go a long ways toward clearing all this up...