HD 43: Lamutt’s Troubles Deepening
by politicalvine
Rumors have it that a robo-call phone poll was conducted on September 15, 2011 that resulted in 356 voters responding to questions regarding how they felt about the upcoming September 20 Special Election….and Legend-in-His-Own-Mind Candidate Robert Lamutt is not in first place.
The poll was conducted by Insider Advantage/Rosetta Stone Communications and results are due to be published in an upcoming MDJ article.
One simple question was asked: “If the election for State Representative were to be held today for whom would you vote?“ (PV Note: Kudos to the grammarian who worded this question correctly by using the “for whom would you vote” rather than the stock “who would you vote for?”)
This is a PDF to the poll’s results, including cross-tabs.
Now…when you look at this, you see that of the poll participants, 19.8% favor newbie political candidate John Carson to establishment-favored, ex-politician Robert Lamutt’s 17.3%. (ouch!!!)
While you may think a 2.5% difference is nothing, if Lamutt was in the lead, he’d be crowing at the TOP of his lungs all over the district about how great and wonderful he is and blah-blah-blah.
Who the heck is Carson? As PV said above, a newbie. To Lamutt, likely a “nobody.” BUT…this lead shows that of the people in the district who do remember Robert Lamutt’s previous service as a state senator that they ain’t all that impressed with him….and, more importantly, with 35% of the poll not having an opinion on any of the candidates, this leaves a total of 47.7% of the people who are aware of the 5 candidates by name in this race and they are not planning on voting for Lamutt.
One new development since PV issued our Alert a week ago was that the AJC published an article about Lamutt’s staggering lien debt of $138K owed to the federal and Georgia state government that he (or his LLC, etc. legal entities he controls)…and Lamutt had answers for the federal debt issue: “I could have gone bankrupt and walked away from everything and everybody…”
PV Chuckles: REALLY? Lamutt thinks he could have filed bankruptcy and told the feds to kiss their money goodbye? REALLY? For someone supposedly so astute about financial matters, Robert Lamutt is demonstrating a clear line of ignorance.
If you file bankruptcy (whether personal or for a business entity), those federal tax liens stay attached to you even after your bankruptcy. In fact, there are several forms of debt you never get excused from paying-back when you file for bankruptcy: child support, student loans, and federal tax liens.
So, the audacity of Mr. Lamutt’s claim that “Hey, I coulda filed bankruptcy and absolved my debt obligation of $136,000 to the IRS but I didn’t because I wanted to be a good citizen” is 100% bunk. It’s bull.
Now, there are those who look at his answers and think “Yeah, maybe you know, this economic environment, blah-blah-blah…“….but, here are a few facts:
1) In 2004, well before the 2008 recession, he was in debt to the IRS for about $25,350 from his Lamutt for Congress campaign. Eventually, he paid that off.
2) Lamutt explains in this recent AJC article that the state tax liens have been “resolved.” Well, according to the Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s records as of 9/16/2011 at 1:22 AM, they have not been “resolved.”
There is no receipt of any of these state tax liens being “satisfied” and closed-out by the state. Perhaps we should assume the folks at Labor Commissioner Mark Butler’s office are just slackers at getting the “paperwork” done, eh?
PV Summarizes: Hey…look, money problems suck. PV sincerely hopes that Lamutt gets clear of these liens.
But, Lamutt took $6,000 of money out of one of these operating entities that he owns/manages/is-directly-responsible-for and loaned his campaign for this race this money (HD 43 – Lamutt Campaign Disclosure).
So, if one has $6,000 to extract from an operating entity that owes a federal tax lien, one should wonder how responsible that person is?
Unless, you voters in the HD 43 think it’s okay for a candidate for public office to imagine he’s at a roulette wheel and the $6000 is a bet he is placing with the payoff to be a) winning, and b) winning so he can rise to a position where he can make ALL kinds of backroom deals for votes, and deal in influence games…?
If you do think spending this $6000 (and, who knows how much more he’ll put in in an effort to win?) shows Lamutt is a responsible enough person to represent you in HD 43, then PV feels sorry for you folks.
October 7th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
I received a call on October 5th, 8:53 p.m. from the ID: Advisor. The robo call indicated this was an Alert regarding information you may have received that was false and misleading. Close to the end of the call it indicated the call was from Robert Lamutt’s campaign. Obviously it was in reference to a mailer from John Carson about Mr. Lamutt’s current federal and state tax liens. The robo call did not say what was false or misleading about the mailer. If Mr. Lamutt is asking for our votes then why not tell us what is false our misleading about your financial situation? His response that he could have gone bankrupt and walked away from everything is more misleading. As indicated in your article, if you file bankruptcy those federal tax liens stay attached to you even after your bankruptcy.
It is clear Mr. Lamutt has financial problems so why would we want to put a person in office, along with the other people that are not paying their taxes.