I am deeply saddened by this news.
Posted on 05/16/2004 9:00:47 AM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
South Dakota's two major candidates for the U.S. Senate both owe the bulk of their wealth to lobbying.
The $157,626 salary paid to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is about one-fifth of the $749,558 his wife, Linda, is paid to lobby for Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.
Daschle's opponent, former Republican congressman John Thune, earned $452,675 from a spate of lobbying work. His wife, Kimberley, does not work outside the home.
Both Senate candidates and South Dakota's two U.S. House candidates agreed to release their 2003 federal income tax returns to the Rapid City Journal. All of the candidates declined to comment about their opponents' reports.
The documents revealed that Linda Daschle does not earn the multimillion dollar salary some critics have claimed and that Thune makes a comfortable living between a lobbying job with a Washington, D.C., firm and his own lobbying company in South Dakota.
In a memo attached to the Daschles' return, campaign staffers defended Linda Daschle's earnings as in line with what other top Washington lobbyists are paid.
"Linda Daschle's salary is commensurate with someone with her experience and achievements working in a Washington, D.C., law firm," the memo says.
Thune's campaign manager has defended his dual role as lobbyist and candidate, saying his candidate has to make a living.
"In an ideal world, my candidate would be volunteering his time in a soup kitchen. But he has to pay his bills," Dick Wadhams said.
Here are details from the candidates' tax returns:
The Daschles
The Daschles' $1.36 million in 2003 income includes:
• $749,558 from Linda Daschle's salary for her lobbying job.
• $157,626 from Sen. Daschle's salary as Senate minority leader.
• $449,021 from Sen. Daschle's book, "Like No Other Time."
• $800 in taxable interest from bank accounts.
• $345 in "taxable refunds, credits or offsets of state and local income taxes."
• $29 in dividends.
The Daschles paid $249,323 in federal taxes, claiming $497,047 in itemized deductions. The biggest deduction is $396,888 in charitable contributions, the bulk of which came from the book proceeds, Daschle campaign spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said.
The Daschles listed other items in the exemption section of their return but were not able to deduct the full amount of those. They include $65,013 in state and local income taxes, $57,401 in home mortgage interest and related deductions, $28,248 for living expenses, $9,361 in property taxes, $3,656 for tax preparation and $164 for professional dues.
The Thunes
The Thunes' $456,291 in 2003 income includes:
• $270,010 from the Thune Group, a consulting/lobbying limited liability company that he established in South Dakota after he lost the 2002 Senate race. Of that, about $36,000 is from his position on the board of directors of First Federal Savings Bank.
• $186,080 in salary from his lobbying job with the Washington, D.C., firm Arent Fox.
• $192 in taxable interest.
• $9 in dividends.
The Thunes paid $128,890 in federal taxes, claiming $34,240 in itemized deductions. The Thunes' deductions include $32,320 in charitable contributions, $8,109 in home mortgage interest and related deductions and $3,206 in property taxes. Like the Daschles, the Thunes could not include the total amounts as deductions.
Thune said he used 500 square feet of his 2,500-square-foot home in Sioux Falls as a home business and reports that he earned $239,755 working from home.
The House race
South Dakota's House of Representatives candidates each reported less than $100,000 in income in 2003. Farmer Larry Diedrich lists $73,451 in income, and attorney Stephanie Herseth was paid $84,410.
The Diedrichs
Diedrich's income includes:
• $23,090 in salary, including $16,350 from the farming corporation formed by Diedrich and his brother, and $6,740 for his position as a state senator.
• $47,689 in land rental payments. The farming corporation formed by Diedrich and his brother rents land owned by the brothers, Diedrich spokeswoman Danielle Holland said.
• $4,417 in interest.
• $1,237 from work Diedrich's wife, Jackie Diedrich, did for an embroidery company.
• $18 in dividends.
• A $3,000 capital loss.
The Diedrichs paid $6,924 in federal tax and claimed $9,500 in itemized deductions.
Stephanie Herseth
Herseth was paid $78,738 for her work setting up and running the South Dakota Farmers Union Foundation and $5,670 for teaching at two South Dakota colleges.
She paid $24,279 in federal taxes and claimed $3,338 in expenses to move from Aberdeen to Brookings and 15 percent of her Brookings apartment for a home office. She said she earned $79,308 working from home.
Herseth made national news as one of the first congressional candidates to pay herself a campaign salary, something newly allowed under the country's revamped campaign finance laws. The news drew sharp criticism from Republicans until reports that a Republican House candidate from Arkansas was paying himself much more than Herseth's $2,500 per month
Can someone over there check his numbers? The appraised )taxable) value of his home/property should be a matter of public record. His real estate taxes seem awfully low.
Alas, if Tommie the Commie were a Republican, the left wing media would really be interested on why his return was so out of bounds late last year that he elected not to run for the dem presidential cadidacy so as to avoid making it public but he decided to release it today? Did he find a fiction writing CPA? All those Anderson accountants out of work?
Something stinks here!
Where is the miscellaneous income that should accrue on the various pools of money. $29 in dividends is nothing and suggests no stock or mutual fund holdings. $800 in interest is almost nothing. It calculates out to the return on a deposit of about $50K at less than 2%. Both must belong to a government credit union which must pay better than 2%. These numbers look contrived to me. Any tax guys out there who can comment?
• $749,558 from Linda Daschle's salary for her lobbying job.Way to cash in on Tommy's access and position, Linda.
Was she having a bad year? $750,000 does sound kind of low for a high dollar lobbyist.
Weird. I get more dividends than both together from a rather modest ESOP (~30K). Are they too embarassed to invest their capital?
I'm sure these are isolated incidents. Surely only on the Democrat side. And certainly not endemic to Congress as a whole. At least the Brits limit their royalty to one blood line.
I am deeply saddened by this news.
Little TOMMY had a BOOK???!!!! And he made $449K on it??!!! THAT sounds really odd to me, unless they paid him up front...
The Daschles listed other items in the exemption section of their return but were not able to deduct the full amount of those. They include ..., $28,248 for living expenses, ....
How do I get to deduct "Living Expenses" and what are they really?
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