Questions About Bob Dold Residency Claims Surface

[YBR31]

Source: Huffington Post

Bob Dold, Republican candidate for Congress, has spent a lot of time touting his Illinois Tenth District Roots. On his website and in campaign ads, Dold has said he's a lifelong resident of the district. The problem with the latter is that the former is not true. Bob Dold pretty much left the Illinois 10th after high school...

Most interesting is Dold's post-DC history. Dold didn't move back to the district when he left Capitol Hill in 1999. He went to Chicago. He eventually purchased a home in the neighborhood called Roscoe Village. The deeds and all his refinance mortgages can be seen on the Cook County Recorders website. More interesting than the land title records, however, are the tax assessor records for Dold's Roscoe Village Property. He and his wife -- who co-owns the property with him -- obtained a homeowner's exemption for the years 2005 and 2006. That means one of them signed a form claiming the property as their "primary" residence. At the same time Bob Dold owned a property claimed by he or his wife as a "primary" residence, Dold voted from a registration at his parent's address in Winnetka. The Winnetka voting record is on the third page of the prior link. He registered in Winnetka years before, but never re-registered at his Chicago address. Dold's wife did register and vote from the Chicago address.

I called the Cook County Clerk yesterday and spoke to their communications person. I asked her what a voter signs when he or she applies for a ballot. They sign that they are registered at the address printed on the form and that they are qualified to vote. One is qualified to vote if registered, a U.S. citizen, over 18 years of age, not convicted and in jail and live in the election precinct at least 30 days next preceding the election. The case law is mixed on the subject, going into the voter's intent to create a permanent address as described below, but the Clerk's spokesperson advised me that they tell voters that they have a duty to re-register at their new location when they move...

Dold responded to the Sun-Times. He claims that his actions were proper because the standard for the Homeowner's Exemption in Chicago is "primary residence" while some Illinois courts use a "permanent residence" standard to determine voting qualification. The idea of "permanent residence" is that you always intended to move back and move back Bob Dold did, but not to the Winnetka address he claims as his permanent residence, but to another house in another town, Kenilworth. Since Dold did not move back to the Winnetka residence, I cannot see how he can claim it as a permanent residence. He probably never intended to move his wife and children back into his parents home and he didn't do it. He moved into another town. According to the Sun-times article, a spokesperson for the Cook County Clerk David D. Orr's office responded to the paper's inquiries:
When things like this are brought to our attention, we take it very seriously and we forward it to States Attorney's office for review.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-gill/bob-dold-residence-and-vo_b_743501.html

[louis-t]

1. "Leave Bob Dold alone. Bob Dold lives in Winnetka.

Bob Dold lives in the 10th district. Bob Dold doesn't live with his Mommy and Daddy." Signed, Bob Dold. :evilgrin:

[DarthDem]

5. Well Played!

I have to admit I thought this was a typo, and for some reason some intrepid investigator was looking into how Mr. and Mrs. Dole managed to be U.S. Senators from Watergate without ever setting foot in their home states. Kansas didn't mind; North Carolina did.

Meanwhile, Bob Dold's in trouble. Bob Dold's gotta run away.

[louis-t]

6. "Bob Dold's gettin' upset!"

[gratuitous]

2. Under "Residence" on his Facebook page: "It's complicated"

The rich aren't like you and me. See, it all depends on what makes the most sense monetarily. Right now in the Oregon governor's race, former NBA player Chris Dudley is trying to explain how he lived in Oregon, but actually had his residence in Washington. Now, we're not supposed to draw the wrong conclusion, and assume that Dudley was trying to dodge Oregon income tax on his ancillary streams of income from endorsements and personal appearance contracts and the like. And we are surely not supposed to think that Dudley might have done most of his shopping in Oregon where there is no sales tax, instead of in Washington. Perish the thought!

Too bad the rest of you losers don't have imaginative ways to avoid hundreds or thousands of dollars in taxes while "earning" a salary in the millions. But that doesn't mean Dudley or Dold are chiselers, so stop saying that!

[Bitwit1234]

3. But if you are a republican in Florida you can list any

residence you want and vote in any other residence you want. Remember Coulter did it and nothing was done.

[No Elephants]

4. Romney did something similar when he ran for Governor of Massachusetts.

He had just paid state taxes in Utah at the rate {lower} a Utah resident would pay. However, he had not to checked any box--yes or no-- where the Utah tax form asked if he were a Utah resident.

When he ran for Governor of Massachusetts soon after, someone challenged his Massachusetts residency. He said he had inadvertently left the box unchecked and also inadvertently paid Utah at the Utah resident rate. He paid Utah the difference and the Massachusetts Secretary of State--a Democrat-- then cleared Romney to run for Massachusetts Governor without further ado. And no one challenged the Secretary's ruling in court.


Romney ran and won, then spent most of his one term traveling the U.S., raising his national profile so he could run for President after his one term ended. Or, more accurately, he spent his one term as Governor running for President. And dissing Massachusetts and not contradicting his Republican companions who did.