Abel Maldonado, congressional candidate for the 24th District, is haggling with the Internal Revenue Service—again—over roughly $470,000, the amount the government agency says Maldonado owes on his family’s business.
The former lieutenant governor disputed the IRS’s claim in a statement released by his campaign April 5.
The dispute concerns Maldonado’s 2006 and 2007 taxes on his family farm and equipment rental business, and whether certain items were deducted for tax purposes during the right time period.
“That’s the heart of the issue, and that’s the whole issue,” campaign spokesman Brandon Gesicki told the Sun.
In a statement, Maldonado called the dispute a “difference of opinion.”
The news struck some as ironic, given that Maldonado has long stated the need for a simpler tax code, which he reiterated in the announcement over his newfound tax troubles.
Maldonado’s family business also reluctantly paid $111,146 in tax liens to the IRS in 2010.
Though there’s seldom a comfortable time to get a bill from the IRS, it is especially rough for Maldonado, who is currently challenging long-time Democratic incumbent Lois Capps in a tight race for the newly redrawn 24th Congressional District.
That race is shaping up to be the most highly contested for Capps since she took over the former 23rd District from her late husband, Walter Capps, in 1998.
But according to current figures, the new 24th District shaped by last year’s redistricting process has narrowed the 20-point lead she enjoyed over Republican challenger Tom Watson in 2008.
Instead, Capps is looking to retain control of a new district that is registered roughly 39 percent Democrat, 36 percent Republican, and 20 percent decline-to-state.
In light of the closing bipartisan gap, money figures even more prominently for the candidates. According to the latest Federal Election Commission reports, Maldonado’s campaign raised over $1.2 million between January and Dec. 31, 2011. However, much of that figure includes loans Maldonado issued to himself, a fact capitalized on by Capps.
In June 2011, the last day of the federal reporting cycle, Maldonado loaned his campaign $250,000, which he repaid the very next day, giving the impression his campaign was a quarter-million dollars richer than it was. He repeated the tactic again in September and December 2011.
It won’t be known until the next quarterly contribution report if Maldonado repaid the December 2011 loan. Maldonado previously told the Sun that he made the contributions to let people know he has the money, and plans to use it.
Capps, on the other hand, has raised roughly $1.05 million between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2011, without debt.
