| Since Hillary Clinton's scandal over fugitive fund-raiser Norman Hsu, presidential campaigns have upped the vetting of their "bundlers" -- individuals who gather up lots of donations to direct them to the candidate of their choice. Undoubtedly, presidential candidates are reluctant to flush out any donor -- especially big bundlers, and with the exception of someone like Hsu, members of this elite group are likely to remain the most influential people you've never heard of in American politics.
For example, take the subject of this post: Ocean County Republican Chairman and Rudy Giuliani '08 bundler, George Gilmore. Maybe you're familiar with Gilmore, who is without question the most powerful Republican boss in the state. He's a partner in a lucrative law firm, Gilmore & Monahan, which handles millions of taxpayer dollars every year. He's a fund-raising dynamo, becoming a "Pioneer" (bundling more than $100,000) for George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004. But there's one thing a lot of people didn't know about Gilmore until recently.
He's had trouble paying his taxes.
At least that's what the Ocean County Observer says. Last week, they reported that "county tax records still show that Gilmore has a tax lien for $158,716.74 in outstanding [individual federal income] tax payments from 2005." According to the Observer, Gilmore paid his liens just a few weeks ago -- the exact same time citizens and reporters began researching the story.
According to WhiteHouseForSale.org, a site maintained by the national nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, Rudy Giuliani disclosed George Gilmore's name as a designated bundler for his 2008 campaign.
What Giuliani should do is a no-brainer: if Gilmore had the means to raise $100,000 for Bush in 2004, he had the means to pay his income taxes in 2005. To absolve him because he paid them off when people started asking questions is absurd. Giuliani needs to boot him from his campaign, and do it fast.
Now the question should be, 'How much money did Gilmore bundle for Giuliani while he left more than $158,000 of his taxes unpaid?' In other words, how much is Giuliani going to return, or give to charity? Hillary returned upwards of $800,000 in the Hsu case.
Astonishingly, tax liens are like a rite of passage in Gilmore's Ocean County Republican machine these days. Several high profile Republicans have now had their tax liens exposed -- including the GOP candidates for the top offices in two large towns. They are: Toms River Council President and Mayoral Candidate Gregory P. McGuckin ($121,913), Brick Council President and Mayoral Candidate Stephen Acropolis ($27,516), Beachwood Mayor Harold Morris ($16,437.29) and Toms River Municipal Utility Authority Commissioner Joseph Bilotta ($127,498.32).
There's even more to this story -- and a reason Giuliani may be unable to distance himself from Gilmore. Because the Ocean County Republican boss has done a lot more for Giuliani than fund-raising. Read below for the rest. |
Marc Ambinder wrote back in May that, "Historically, New Jersey's Republican primary has allotted delegates proportionally, based on performance in the state's congressional districts." But that's not the case in 2008.During the state GOP meeting, an ad hoc adviser committee appointed by the state chairman voted 10 to 3 to send to the state committee a recommendation that the rules be changed to award all delegates to one winner. Ocean County GOP chairman George Gilmore, the chairman of the committee of county chairman-which is to say, a powerful guy-introduced the rules-change resolution. [Cape May County GOP Chair David] Von Savage seconded it. Now, two thirds of the several dozen members on the state committee must ratify it. One connected Republican said he would be "shocked" if the state committee "doesn't accept this recommendation from the most powerful of the GOP powerbrokers."
Here is what Gilmore and Von Savage want to accomplish: the moment New Jersey Republicans announce that they're awarding all their delegates to the winner-whoever he may be-the race freezes. Giuliani, who has locked up more than half of the county chairs and virtually every major Republican endorsement the state has to offer, becomes the winner. Immediately. The winner-take-all provision passed, much to Giuliani's delight and his Republican opponents' chagrin.
Giuliani owes Gilmore. A lot. Can he retain his ties with Gilmore if the national press started paying attention to this story? Only time -- and attention -- will tell.
(And to top it all off, the Ocean County Observer is now alleging Gilmore worked both sides to provide a sweetheart deal for a developer at the expense of Ocean County taxpayers.) |
