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Illinois Democratic Senatorial Candidate Facing Tough Questions About His Tax Refund

07/06/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is having trouble in his bid to replace Senator Roland Burris this November. In a race that Nate Silver once stated that if he was an independently wealthy man living in Illinois, he’d be considering running for Senate as an Independent. Giannoulias, it has been revealed, was given a $30,000 tax refund after the collapse of his family bank. The refund came because $30,000 is how much was taken out of his salary as State Treasurer.

Currently, Giannoulias is trailing Republican Mark Kirk who has been dogged by a huge number of his own scandals, but he is not trailing by much and the election is still several months away.

Mark Kirk has been caught, so far, fabricating or inflating his war record as a member of the Naval Reserves, his credentials as a teacher, and his sexuality. The last has been something of a quiet problem for him in that it appears none of the voting public in Illinois care cares whether or not Representative Kirk is gay. He seems to be the only one willing to remain in the closet despite numerous solid reports that he has been known to frequent DC’s gay bars, a place where he apparently is looking to meet the next Mrs. Kirk.

Giannoulias lost some $2.7 million in the collapse of his family’s bank. That income meant that his own income as state treasurer was docked far more than it would have if he had been normally employed without the bank’s money. The Kirk campaign went on the attack using the old “Democrats want to raise our taxes” meme by saying “Giannoulias wants to raise our taxes but doesn’t pay any taxes himself.” Giannoulias’ campaign fired back pointing out Mark Kirk’s problems with the truth. Matt McGrath, a Giannoulias spokesman, stated “It comes as no surprise given his record of mistruths, half-truths and untruths about his military record, but when he says Alexi wants to raise taxes, Congressman Kirk is lying. Again.”

Figures from Giannoulias’ campaign show that his net worth dropped roughly in half in the last year, and he had already pledged to donate his tax refunds to charity. According to the figures he released, he is now worth between $7 million and $29.3 million where as the year before he was worth between $13 million and $62.3 million. Senate candidates give broad ranges to protect their privacy.