Wisconsin Democrats Release New Web Video Highlighting Eric Hovde’s Failure to Disclose Tax Returns, Cayman Islands Holdings
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin today released a new web video highlighting the growing call for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde to release his tax returns and details of his “complex web” of financial holdings.
The video features Wisconsin Democrats who visited Hovde’s recent campaign stops, calling for disclosure.
Deb Stover, Communications Director for the Brown County Democratic Party said, “If you think you want to be the U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, you need to be straight with the people here about whether you shelter your money, whether you run tax shelters for other one-percenters, or whether you pay your fair share.”
View the video here.
In a conference call with reporters, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate today released the following remarks about the failure of both Hovde and Washington lobbyist Tommy Thompson to fully disclose their financial interests.
“After months of campaigning and only weeks before the Aug. 14 primary vote, the voters of Wisconsin still don’t know important information about these very wealthy individuals who seek to represent them in the United States Senate.
Once again, we are calling for disclosure, and calling on the Washington twins, Washington lobbyist Tommy Thompson and Washington hedge fund manager Eric Hovde, to release 10 years of their federal tax returns.
The same controversy swirling over the head of their presidential nominee Mitt Romney is swirling over the heads of Secretary Thompson and the unknown Hovde — and for many of the same reasons.
In Hovde’s case, he actually is a hedge fund manager who, like Romney, has bet against America by investing in the Cayman Islands.
Hovde has spent millions of dollars in advertising, but as he tours a state he left 25 years ago, he is still a virtual blank slate. All we know about him is that he bought banks that took bailout money, that he’s worth more than 50 million bucks and that he favors massive cuts to programs for the middle class so that rich guys like himself can get massive tax cuts.
Outrageously, Hovde claims that he’s answered questions about his Cayman Islands fund and about his own finances, which the Republican Milwaukee Journal Sentinel described as a “complex web.”
This is not true. The public is in danger of heading into an election with a candidate who may or may not be taking advantage of the very tax loopholes and government subsidies that he decries.
Now, with Secretary Thompson, at least he comes out and says outright that he is going to hide from scrutiny, probably because he doesn’t want the public to see that he has spent his time in Washington helping Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies and Big Oil at the expense of the working families of Wisconsin.
In any case, it looks very much like the Washington twins believe that they can pull one over on the press and on the people of Wisconsin. Either that, or they stand more to lose by disclosing their federal tax returns than keeping them hidden from public view.
It should be noted that Tammy Baldwin has released 10 years of her tax returns and is available for the kind of scrutiny that the public should have.
This election is about the economic security of the middle class. As voters go to the polls in November, they deserve to know whether the candidates they send to Washington to fight for their livelihood are going to side with those forces that are working against the middle class, like hedge fund raiders and corporations that ship jobs overseas, or whether they are actually on their side in this fight.
It’s time for Secretary Thompson and Eric Hovde to quit playing games. It’s time for the Washington twins to release their tax returns.”
