Ryan-Linked PAC Hits North Carolina Democrat for Late Tax Payments – By Griffin Connolly (rollcall.com) / Oct 8 2018
GOP Rep. George Holding in tight race with Linda Coleman in 2nd District
The super PAC aligned with Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Monday released its second ad in North Carolina’s 2nd District, going after Democrat Linda Coleman for not paying her property taxes on time.
The new spot from Congressional Leadership Fund claims that Coleman, who is challenging Republican Rep. George Holding, has missed the deadline for paying her taxes “over 60 times.”
“She didn’t pay her taxes on time, but had no problem raising your taxes,” the narrator says.
A Roll Call review of Coleman’s property tax records found that since the mid-1990s, she missed the initial deadline to pay taxes on four different properties on 63 occasions.
CLF’s ad does not mention that in North Carolina there is often a grace period ranging from several weeks to several months after the initial deadline for residents to pay their property taxes without accruing interest — rendering the original deadline a “soft” deadline.
Coleman incurred interest on eight different property tax payments after she missed the grace period window in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014.
Her interest bills from those years total less than $500.
CLF has bought ad space in the Raleigh media market and will fill digital platforms throughout the district with the new ad.
“Coleman didn’t pay her taxes on time, but she had no problem raising taxes on families, supporting higher income and sales taxes. North Carolinians deserve better than career politician Linda Coleman,” CLF spokeswoman Courtney Alexander said in a statement.
The group opened a field office in August in the 2nd District, where it has reserved $1.4 million to support Holding, who is bidding for a fourth term. .
The incumbent won re-election by 13 points in 2016 after the district was redrawn. He outperformed President Donald Trump, who carried the district by 6 points.
Recent polling from both sides has shown a close race.
A late-August internal poll for Coleman, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, gave her a 1-point edge, 45 percent to 44 percent. On Aug. 20, Holding’s campaign sent out fundraising emails raising the alarm about a poll it had conducted showing the congressman down by 3 points.
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Tilts Republican.
