R.D. Sahl on NECN just read a statement issued by Deval Patrick on the subject of tax problems. I didn’t get the full text of it, but the gist was that about a decade or so ago, Patrick and his wife entered into an installment agreement with the IRS to pay off an unexpected tax liability. When they missed one or two payments, the IRS filed a tax lien. The Patricks paid the whole thing off (I think about $8,000) within about five months.
Smart of Patrick to do this now, and in this way. Obviously it will be a minor story compared to St. Fleur’s withdrawal, especially since it’s a decade old and appears to be a non-story anyway.
UPDATE: Here’s the AP story.
FURTHER UPDATE: I haven’t found the actual statement from Patrick yet, but this AP story on the Herald’s site quotes more extensively from it and from him than other sources I’ve seen so far:
“More than a decade ago, Diane and I had an installment agreement with the IRS to pay, on a monthly basis, an unexpected tax liability,” Patrick said in a statement issued to The Associated Press. “We missed one or two of our installments. This triggered an IRS lien. We took immediate steps to pay off the balance and within five months discharged in full the $8,778 we owed.”… “Just like us, people find themselves in situations like this at points in their lives,” Patrick said. “A rare few are immune from tight financial times at one time or another. We met our responsibilities, paid our debt and moved on.”
This way, this becomes a tack-on at the end of a St. Fleur story instead of it’s own thing.
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The good news about this whole fiasco is that there’s so much else going on in the world and in Massachusetts that this is easy to miss. Right?
The DP campaign has probably been waiting for the key time to drop this. Of course they did it now when it slips under the radar of Reilly’s disaster.
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Regardless, I don’t think that this bodes as well for the party as everyone might think.
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We are all chomping at the bit for a candidate who is exciting, progressive, and who can whup the republican candidate (who is likely to be Kerry Healey, yes?). I say, let’s not settle for the current field. We can draft a new candidate.
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Who can debate KH on the issues AND be exciting? who neutralizes her assets? I think we need to think outside the box a little more and I bet I’m not alone. I heard rumor that there is a ‘draft martha’ camapign among activists.. lets get Martha Coakley on the ticket! We’ve all seen her on the news this week.. she can outspeak and outshine any of them. Bring in Martha!
I was under the impression that today was the last day to pull papers for the primaries. But I’m no expert on these details. Anyone?
The yesterday deadline was a party deadline, if I understand correctly. Candidates have until mid-May to submit their petitions to Galvin’s office, I think.
They need to get signitures of a certain % of the party delegates in June inorder for them to be eligible for the Dem Primary ballot. Martha? PLEASE, she just walking in the footsteps of Tom.
They need a certain number of signatures from registered voters by the first or second week of May (10,000 for Gov). They also need to get the vote of 15% of the delegates at the caucus in June.
You’re kidding right? Is this the ONION? Was i re-directed there?
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Put Deval and Kerry side by side and see what happens. I can’t wait!
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Don’t forget she and her husband have their “little” $1 million dollar tax problem as well. That’s NOT going away.
What are you talking about? 1 million what?
Than the spin is that he paid his taxes.
I asked: you can get delegate support at the convention. Deadline is not final for Democratic candidates to file but it would take a mass of delegates to vote for you.
I feel like Charlie Brown hoping to finally kick that football.
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Tough week for the Dems.
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This DP story is strange. There has to be more to it. Hopefully he will explain it sooner rather than later.
I’m impressed with that daft little maneuver from the Patrick camp.
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Although Reilly has been the pre-ordained dem since early last year, Patrick continues to gain steam. I hope this momentum continues.
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I just can’t shake the feeling that the Reilly camp did not rush headlong into the St. Fleur ticket, but rather knew exactly where it would head. Look how quickly all of this information came out about St. Fleur. I find it hard to believe that all the insiders working Reilly’s camp didn’t know the extent of St. Fleur’s problems. What’s the strategy, though? It certainly sounds like a disaster…