A review by Maryland officials into property tax breaks received in that state by Alaska Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan has found the tax breaks were appropriately granted.
In an emailed statement Tuesday, the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation said Sullivan, who received the tax breaks while working at the U.S. State Department and living in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Bethesda between 2006 and 2008, accurately declared Maryland his principal residence during that period -- a finding likely to provide ammunition to Sullivan's opponents.
The review was conducted at the request of the chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, Mike Wenstrup. Democrats have raised questions about Sullivan's Alaska residency history over the course of the campaign, and noted that Sullivan voted absentee in Alaska's 2008 general election -- a year he also declared Maryland his principal residence for tax purposes.
The Democrats also noted that Sullivan said he'd been an Alaska resident since 1997 on a notarized form he filed this year when declaring his candidacy for U.S. Senate.
Alaska residents can vote absentee if they have left the state for temporary purposes and intend to return. The state determines a candidate's residency using a set of rules similar to those that govern a voter's eligibility.
A spokesman for Sullivan, Mike Anderson, said in an emailed statement: "Mark Begich's liberal allies have made it abundantly clear he is willing to say or do anything to shamefully distort Dan's record, and this time was clearly no different."
Zack Fields, a spokesman for the Alaska Democratic Party, said Maryland's review "contradicts" what Sullivan said "on the campaign trail." Asked if he thought the findings amounted to a legal problem for Sullivan, Fields responded that that's "splitting hairs, a little bit."
Robert Young, the director of Maryland's assessment and taxation department, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.