David Larsen for Congress

The past couple of weeks have witnessed an unprecedented and breathtakingly vicious personal attack on the part of Leonard Lance - a sitting U.S. Congressman - directed against David Larsen, who did nothing other than call attention to Lance's voting record in Congress. The time has come to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies, and Dave Larsen from Leonard Lance.

Earlier this year, David Larsen – the front-running conservative Republican challenger to incumbent Leonard Lance – spoke at a meeting of GOP Congressional candidates in Hunterdon County where he shared with the audience his own experience of trying to cope with the heavy burden of our New Jersey property taxes while supporting a household, meeting a payroll and honoring financial commitments.

There is a lot of land on the Larsen farm: the average annual property tax bill is close to $40,000 – not exactly pocket change – and downturns in household cash flow sometimes meant the roughly $10,000 quarterly tax payment could not be made in full on the day it was due. Anyone who has ever been late on a mortgage payment or was unable to pay taxes owed to the IRS when they were due on April 15 understands this situation and knows that arrangements can be made to pay the amount owed after the due date – along with additional expenses incurred in the form of penalties and/or interest.

In Larsen’s case, he arranged to make periodic payments on any balance due together with 18% interest and penalties which, in his case, totaled $14,000. By the end of April of this year all outstanding taxes were fully paid.

While the ordinary, honest folks in the audience who listened to Larsen nodded their heads in understanding, less scrupulous people – in this case the Leonard Lance re-election campaign – saw an opening to destroy a potential rival and immediately went to work.

Private investigators hired by Lance dug up as much dirt as possible on David Larsen – a mission that involved, among other things, spending hours in the tax assessor’s office combing through Larsen’s records. The findings were compiled into what is now called “The Larsen Report” (a six-page rehash of the candidate’s personal finances) and included his property tax payment history. The report was subsequently leaked to a former New Jersey state legislator who is an advisor to the Hosford campaign. In turn, the document was forwarded the document to numerous other parties.

Leonard Lance  knows that NOBODY cares if an overburdened taxpayer makes a late tax payment – even numerous late tax payments – as long as the amount due is fully paid (and, in this case, with interest). In order to give this information some political traction, the Lance campaign launched a blistering direct mail and radio advertising blitz asserting that Larsen is a "tax dodger" – in spite of the fact that, by definition, a “tax dodger” is someone who intentionally tries to evade the payment of taxes altogether. The reality of the matter is that Larsen has never tried to avoid paying his property taxes - in fact, just the opposite is the case: consistent payments have been made and the debt erased by the end of April; on May 27, 2010 the township of Tewksbury issued a formal letter confirming that David Larsen’s property taxes are paid in full.

So much for the fiction concocted by Leonard Lance in a desperate attempt to destroy David Larsen. Here are the facts:

Fact: Long before Leonard Lance made it the centerpiece of his attacks ads, David Larsen discussed his property tax issue in an effort to demonstrate that New Jersey homeowners from all walks of life feel the burden of high property tax rates;

Fact: While there were occasions when Dave Larsen was unable to pay the property taxes he owed by the due date, he ALWAYS made payments on the balance owed - and those payments included 18% interest.

Fact: In spite of an intensive investigation, the Lance campaign was unable to uncover ANY evidence of illegal, unethical or improper behavior on the part of David Larsen regarding the property taxes on his farm. If anything, Tewksbury reaped a $14,000 windfall.

Fact: The Lance campaign leaked this information to an advisor of the Hosford campaign who made it "shovel ready" for distribution to a number of other parties.

Fact: In spite of the fact that all of David Larsen’s property taxes were paid in full by April 30, Lance’s attack literature and radio ads purposely omitted that information to imply that Larsen still owed money when, in fact, he did not.

Fact: Lance makes the incredulous claim that Larsen did not pay his taxes 21 times. Any homeowner who failed to pay their property taxes 21 times would have seen their house seized and sold at auction.

Fact: Even though David Larsen repeatedly pointed out that these claims were based on falsehoods and amounted to little more than vicious slander, the Lance campaign continues to repeat the lies because they know Larsen is the only conservative Republican candidate who can defeat them.

Fact: Leonard Lance’s direct mail fliers and the radio ads attacking David Larsen aren’t having the intended effect – many voters are being repelled by this disgraceful tactic and are giving their support to David Larsen every day.

back to main page


Paid for by David Larsen for Congress