Incumbent Republican Chris Chocola is getting a taste of his own meds in the close race in Indiana-2. After pounding Democrat Joe Donnelly for his family firm paying payroll taxes so late the IRS slapped a lien on the company, it comes out that Chocola's former firm was also late paying some taxes. James Wensits of the South Bend Tribune reports the story in detail:
U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola's former company, CTB Inc., failed to pay its spring property taxes on time in 2000 and had to pay substantial penalties at the same time Chocola was serving as chairman of the company board.
Ironically, the information comes to light as Chocola's campaign television commercials are criticizing Democratic rival Joe Donnelly for being late in paying property taxes on his Granger home and on a vacation home in Michigan City.The Chocola campaign and even the National Republican Congressional Committee also have been hammering on Donnelly because a family company operated by Donnelly's brother in LaPorte County had a lien placed against it by the IRS in 2001 for unpaid payroll taxes.
In the same article, Chocola fires back:
"This was a one-time mistake made by the company when the responsibility for tax payments was transitioned from one person to another," Chocola said. "A mistake was made and immediately taken care of and the company took full responsibility for it.
"Joe Donnelly is trying to divert attention from the fact that he was intentionally delinquent paying his personal property taxes 15 times. A one-time mistake does not equal Donnelly's systematic and deliberate avoidance of his personal property taxes."He made the decision to put a quarter of a million dollars into his campaign instead of paying his personal property taxes."
Of course, Donnelly comes back at him. Read Wensits' whole story at the link above; this one has all the earmarks of a real donnybrook. Heck, it's only mid-August . . .
The Cook Political Report rates this race as "Lean Republican."
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Indiana, Scandal
