Thread: Tancredo for President 2008 Blog

April, I didn't see anything in your article concerning his failure to honor a term-limit promise he made to Co. voters, nor his deferment from military service during the Vietnam War due to depression. Personally, I think those two items will hurt him more than anything the writer of the article your provided pointed out. Actually, his deferment from military service during the Vietnam War is one reason I support Hunter over him. Currently Tancredo is my second choice.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?ti ... ._Tancredo
The article is from his Bio and was not posted to show he has problems , it was posted to show he stands up for what he believes in and does not back down. He is still my first choice thus far. I am sure there are problems with Duncan Hunter as well. These men are all human, some are just better humans than others and as a voter you have to make tough choices. I think they are both good men.

April wrote:

The article is from his Bio and was not posted to show he has problems , it was posted to show he stands up for what he believes in and does not back down.

I beg your pardon??? You opened the article with this:

I found this info on Tom Tancredo and how he faces controversy.

I'd say his failure to keep his term-limit promise and deferment from military service are controversial issues (problem areas) that will resonate with some voters (how many is anyones guess).

I'm not arguing against what he has done or is doing for our cause, I'm just pointing out a few problems that your article failed to mention.

Yes, How he faces controversy...... and deals with it is what I should have added. I corrected it so it does not confuse anyone else. Sorry about that. Thanks for listing what was not in the article. I found this on Duncan Hunter. I do not know if it is all the controversy he has faced in his career or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Hunter

Controversies

Size of home and taxes paid
In October 2006, the San Diego Union Tribune reported that Hunter's Alpine home was listed on tax rolls as a two-bedroom, 2½-bath house with 2,946 square feet of living space. In fact, the house had six bedrooms and was about 6,200 square feet. The property also featured a 2,000-square-foot guest house, a swimming pool and tennis court. The discrepancy resulted in Hunter paying less in taxes than others in similar-sized properties.

Hunter said it was not his responsibility to make sure property records – and the resulting tax assessments – were correct. "All I know is what the county gives me," Hunter said. "They sent a person on the premises when I bought it. He said, 'This is what you owe.' We simply paid it. We've paid it ever since."

Hunter's main defense of the Union-Tribune article was in the form of a $26,000 full-page ad in the Union Tribune immediately following the UT's article. Using a large dose of humor, including pictures of the "estate" on a dirt road showing the property was in less than optimum condition, Hunter noted that his assessment was set at 40% more than the 1% base amount set by California law. Nowhere in the article is it claimed that Hunter did not get permits on his expansion of the property. Any reassessment beyond the maximum legal increase of 1% of the tax per year normally would have been made based on those permits. The Union-Tribune made no claims as to how the County of San Diego failed to update the Assessor's files to match the permitted improvements.

The house in question was burned to the ground in the wildfires of October 2003. As of December 2006, the house had been almost rebuilt, and Hunter was still contesting the assessment of back taxes, which had been significantly reduced.


Connection to Cunningham scandal
A Department of Defense inspector general found that the department awarded ADCS, a company owned by Brent Wilkes, a $9.8 million contract in mid-1999 after "inquiries from two members of Congress." Hunter has repeatedly acknowledged that he joined with Representative Randy Cunningham that year to contact Pentagon officials, who then reversed a decision and gave ADCS the contract, one of its first big ones.

Between 1994 and 2004, Wilkes and ADCS gave $40,700 in campaign contributions to Hunter. In 2003, Wilkes's foundation hosted a "Salute to Heroes" gala to give Hunter an award, just as it did for Cunningham a year earlier. The Wilkes Foundation also gave $1,000 in 2003 to a charity run by two of Hunter's staffers. However, Hunter has not been found to have committed any crimes or ethical violations. Wilkes is currently an unindicted co-conspirator.