As some of you may know, I am registered as a Republican for reasons that johnny-come-latelys like Dan Hart and the Democratic Governor’s Association well understand. This has left me with a difficult and unaccustomed choice: whom vote for in the GOP primary.
Voting for Jim Gibbons is a given for reasons I have outlined elsewhere. But what about the rest of the ticket? Particularly troublesome is the crowded field for CD 1, where so many candidates have what the ‘Monger’s really looking for–the crazy. Who out there has that teabagger, shrink government to the size of a walnut, privatize the fire department goofy that will attract my vote?
Turns out that Michele Fiore and Craig Lake, the fellow that the Nevada GOP perversely believes is not as strong a candidate as Fiore, had a little scuffle via press releases recently. These were posted over at the Nevada News Bureau, and I thought I’d share some bits, since some of you will be headed to the GOP primary, too.
Fiore started the dust-up with a tax-day piece that seemed to encourage Nevadans to break the law by not paying their full taxes:
It’s tax day, and as millions of Americans rush to file their 2009 tax returns, Michele Fiore, Republican candidate for Congressional District 1, is still battling the IRS over a disputed personal income return from 2006.
“I am happy to pay the government what I owe, but I refuse to pay the government what I don’t owe. I can’t imagine any American blindly handing over their hard-earned money just because the government demands it,” Michele said.
“My case is a perfect example of an over-reaching government using its power and bureaucracy to intimidate its citizens. They give themselves the right to apply a lien on all disputed cases, even though when this is finally resolved, the IRS will end up owing me money. The IRS has nothing to lose by dragging this out, hoping that I will eventually roll over. I will never cave. I will stand up for what I believe is right, and I will never back down.
“It is unfortunate that my primary opponent doesn’t realize that if elected, an enormous responsibility of a Member of Congress is to represent your constituents and act as a liaison between them and the federal government. Is Mr. Lake suggesting that as a Congressman, when District 1 taxpayers come to their Congressman seeking help in a dispute with the IRS, he will blindly take sides with the feds over the taxpayers he represents?
“As your next Congresswoman, the taxpayers in District 1 will always have the benefit of the doubt when they visit me on an issue they need help with. If Mr. Lake is elected, unfortunately he will side with Washington, DC bureaucrats. It says a lot about who he is and what kind of judgment he brings to this race. (NNB)
Fiore is referring to a $47,351.26 lien against some property for which she apparently didn’t pay taxes on time. Or at least, that’s what the IRS thinks.
Ms. Fiore next calls Mr. Lake “young, careless and dangerous” for criticizing her for having an IRS lien on her property. Her campaign site, from which I borrowed the rather suggestive photo above, seems oddly committed to purveying her as armed and dangerous as she claims Mr. Lake to be.
Mr. Lake responded:
As “tax day” approaches it appears as though the “anointed one”, Michele Fiore, has not been properly vetted or forthcoming about her personal history.
As the Nevada News Bureau blog is reporting it appears that Ms. Fiore has a nearly $50,000 IRS tax lien. Just what America needs, another politician that does not pay their taxes. Perhaps Ms. Fiore should jump offices again and try to get a post on the Obama Cabinet.
Ms. Fiore has been trying to paint herself as the experienced candidate…well she sure seems to display a level of hypocrisy usually only shown by politicians with years of experience in Washington.
She is calling herself “a successful business woman” and someone who “signs the front of checks not the back”. Well it seems she’s got a little problem with signing the front of checks as well.
With the current economic conditions affecting southern Nevada, voters need to be assured that their elected officials are people that can be counted on and trusted. Southern Nevada voters have a reason to be concerned, because rather than pay her taxes Fiore plans to invest her own money into her campaign to “find a new job.” As she said in a recent interview, “I will contribute and invest as much as I can afford.” The fact is that if Fiore donates one penny to her campaign before paying her back taxes she is contributing to the problem with our economic situation, not the solution.
“Fiore has made the main focus of her campaign her qualifications as a business owner and fiscal responsibility,” said Craig Lake, Candidate for Congress. “Ms. Fiore has clearly not kept her personal finances in order, so how can we trust her to get our nation back on track? Nevada needs a representative who at a minimum pays their taxes and has their personal financial situation in order. They should feel assured that their representative is not looking for a better job, but rather looking out for them,” Lake continued. “I hope as this tax day approaches Ms. Fiore will join with me and the thousands of hardworking residents of CD1 and actually pay her tax bill,” Lake concluded. (NNB)
All fun and games, of course, but perhaps more interesting to Nor’townies is the question about where Ms. Fiore lives. There is one report that she actually lives in CD 3:
It may also be worth nothing that Fiore actually lives in CD-3 and not at this address [stated in the lien] in CD-1. (NNB)
Which begs the question: what is she doing running in CD1? Is she yet another carpetbagger? If so, inquiring minds want to know: does she own a pink bathrobe?
Nevada Scandalmonger – How contrived a name. The scandal is your lack of factual information in your derogatory opinion piece. Let me correct you. First, Craig Lake’s press release came out first, in an attempt to sling mud at Fiore and discredit her. Her press release was a response to his. From what I’ve seen following Fiore’s campaign, she has endeavored to run a clean, positive campaign, unlike Lake who has endeavored to drag Fiore down as often as possible.
Second, under U.S. law, congressional candidates do not need to live within the district they wish to serve. So Fiore’s residence in CD3 is not relevant to her candidacy. She does own a business in CD1 however, employs people in CD1, and volunteers in the CD1 community. Fiore is uniquely aware of what issues befall CD1 citizens.
These facts support my third point, which is that Fiore is not a carpetbagger. The carpetbaggers, if you’ve studied history, were Northerners who transplanted to the South in order to get elected. Fiore is active and tax paying in Congressional District 1, regardless of where she lives.
Running for office is anything but “all fun and games.” Especially for constitutional candidates; such as Michele Fiore, who appears to be running her CD1 campaign with the same integrity she ran with in SD9. She is a staunch supporter of the troops and veterans, a firm believer in the constitutional principles that our Country was founded on, and has a unique understanding of the impact of a lumbering government on tax payers and small business. Fiore doesn’t strike me as a candidate wrapped up in self-serving agendas, such as perhaps… Craig Lake.
Contrived? Contrived? I do take offense. Nevada Scandalmonger’s the silliest damn name I’ve ever seen!
Michele Fiore and the word ‘integrity’ in the same sentence? Yeah right! Rourke Leon, you do not know Michele Fiore the way her workers do, this includes the ones who left because they got sick of having to wait four days after payday to cash their paychecks, or being told to go to the casinos to cash their checks by the GM, or worse: when Michele Fiore has spent EVERY dime in the company payroll to remodel her house, buy her friends expensive gifts, or go on a shopping spree and there’s no money left in the company payroll and worker’s checks are are returned because of non-sufficient funds. Then Michele Fiore acts like she doesn’t know what happened!
There is little or no professionalism in her companies. Firing workers over the phone, yelling at workers over the phone for no reason, accusing workers of stealing clients, and giving a select few preferential treatment in spite of an arrest record for unknown reasons.
That is the way Michele Fiore does business and that is the way she will continue to do business if, God forbid, she gets elected. Her business is failing miserably and she is just looking for another ‘job’. She is pretentious, mechanistic, and selfish and thinks the world revolves around her. Sound like an ideal candidate for congress?
There is a huge paper trail with Fiore’s name all over it; bounced company checks, bankrupted businesses, and bounced personal checks and many, many thousands of dollars in cashier checks from Nevada State bank deposited into her private account in Summerlin over the last two or three years. Sound like a responsible candidate to you all? I seriously doubt she divulged any of this to the RNC here in hopes this information would never come out.
Yeah, the RNC/GOP shot themselves in more than just the foot; the butt, the groin, and the head when they recruited her. I guess street cred doesn’t matter much if you have a huge rack. Can’t wait for the primaries.
Oh, and before anybody accuses me of being on Lake’s payroll? I’m not on anybody’s payroll, not in this town, rest assured.
Ok, Mr Leon, I was all geared up to work on Michele’s campaign for State Senate. As was Craig Lake. In fact Michele came to dinner at Craig’s house on the Wednesday before she filed to run against him. From talking to people she had promised to work with him and help him out to defeat Berkley and he was all set to help her get to the State Senate. Then Friday she back stabbed him and filed to run against him. She knew when she was having dinner with him that she was lying and knew already all this was going to happen. Just this by itself is devious and unscrupulous and why are the people coddling to her? I used to like her as a person and now I cannot stand to be in the same room with her!!! The way she has her minions blocking the entrances to events and you cannot say no to taking a flyer, they are on both sides and 8 to 10 people on each side pushing her spew towards you!!! WTF??? It’s embarrassing!!! I am waiting for more things to come out so the GOP and RNC removes themselves from her and backs Craig Lake. He is an honorable person and is doing the right thing.
Oops, my bad. I got a couple stories mixed up in my head. There’s a lot going on. The Wednesday before Michele and Craig Lake were speakers at the Republican Town Hall Meeting in Summerlin and she spoke about putting a Republican in the State Senator’s seat. She had all these cards and lost her place a few times and at the time I took it as just speaker jitters. But now that I look back on it, she knew she was lying and had already had plans to file on the Friday to run for Congress in CD1. She sat with Craig Lake and his supporters at the meeting and was all huggy with everyone there even though she had all her hidden knives for Friday ready!!! She had dinner with Craig at his Parents house before that and pledged her support in January.
I have a better one for you; while Fiore says she appreciates the Military veterans, I wouldn’t recommend her company as a good employer for ANY veteran. Fiore had TWO Military vets working for her last year and she treated them like garbage; poor pay and excessive hours for the pay they were getting.
When the first one got fed up after a year of her verbal abuse, and stormed out, while the other vet was chauffeuring one of her thug fieldworkers to Victorville CA for a court appearance, Fiore divulged confidential info on the man, saying he was deported from Europe after spending many years in a foreign prison.
Uh, if he had a prison record, why was he hired in the first place? Fiore is a little wanna-be thug herself.