The ad is designed to make Republican Secretary of State candidate Brad Raffensperger look like a tax deadbeat. But notice the attribution for the information.
Even his Republican opponents said it, an announcer intones, rehashing an allegation made months ago by a political opponent.
“Raffensperger owes up to $130,000 in unpaid personal and business taxes,” says another voice coming from a commercial which aired during the Republican primary.
- Democrats say they have no independent documentation of this.
- They point to a newspaper article indicating some back taxes owed by a company Raffensperger once owned.
- Raffensperger says he paid those taxes earlier this year.
"I went ahead and took care of it," Raffensperger said during an interview following a campaign stop in Macon. "And I said at the time, if there are any other liens you find that I’m not aware of, I’ll take care of those."
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Now back to the ad. And notice the language in the past tense.
Brad Raffesnperger owed up to $130,000 in taxes, says the announcer in the ad.
This time it says he “owed” taxes. All of us who pay taxes have “owed” taxes.
- The attribution here is to tax records in Muscogee and Gwinnett Counties.
- Raffensperger admits he owed and then paid back taxes earlier this year totaling about $5058.
"Those weren’t personal. They were all business related. They just tagged me as a person. And so they did. I wasn’t going to argue about it," Raffensperger said.
Here’s the part of the ad that Raffensperger’s opponent, Democrat John Barrow says is indisputable.
"Brad Raffensperger swore he had paid his taxes. He lied," the announcer says in the ad.
- When they run for state office, every candidate has to sign a sworn affidavit indicating the tax collector isn’t after them.
- When he signed the form, Raffensperger says he was personally tagged for business tax liens in Gwinnett and Muscogee Counties.
- But he says because they were business taxes, he claims he didn’t lie when he signed the form.
- The form doesn't explicitly distinguish between business and personal taxes.