ICYMI: PA Democratic Congressional hopefuls’ rush to November slowed by financial baggage

Wednesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article detailing PA-04 Democratic nominee Madeleine Dean’s husband’s undisclosed dealings and holdings with Chinese companies that capitalize on low wages and horrible work conditions to manufacture bicycles. Those same companies, according to the article, “invested buckets of money in her husband’s business.”

In addition, the same businesses operated by her family utilize off-shore tax havens to further cash in. (Asia money: Democrat Madeleine Dean to amend financial report in Montco Congress race, Philadelphia Inquirer, Joseph N. DiStefano, 09/19/2018)

As the story points out, not only did Dean fail to file the appropriate disclosures in required documents related to her Congressional bid, but the nature of the holdings raises more questions than answers, particularly as it relates to Dean calling for higher wages in Pennsylvania, but financially benefitting from the low wages paid to Chinese workers.

The revelations of Dean’s failure to disclose the holdings, which she personally benefits from, while also seeking to avoid taxes, is the latest in a string of Pennsylvania Democratic Congressional hopefuls having trouble with Chinese companies and avoiding taxes.

Take the following recent news:

  • A report linking PA-06 Democrat nominee Chrissy Houlahan’s operation of AND1 factories in China that were linked to “abusive working conditions” where workers were subject to normal work weeks of between 75 and 100 hours, making just 35 cents per hour. Workers there were housed in “primitive dormitories” and fed food resembling “pig slop.” – (Report links Chrissy Houlahan’s former company to Chinese ‘sweatshops’, City & State PA, Ryan Briggs, 11/02/2017)
    • NOTE: These factories were located in the same Chinese province that houses Dean’s husband’s bicycle manufacturer
  • PA-08 Democrat Congressman Matt Cartwright was constantly late in paying taxes on his Washington, D.C. condo, resulting in thousands in accrued interest and penalties. (Cartwright regularly late paying DC condo taxes, The Citizens Voice, Borys Krawczeniuk, 8/9/2018)
  • PA-11 Democrat Congressional nominee Jess King is being assisted by a shady super-PAC that has not filed appropriate disclosures and is subject to an FEC complaint. (GOP files campaign finance complaint against Lancaster Stands Up, LancasterOnline, Sam Janesch, 09/11/2018)
  • PA-01 Democrat nominee Scott Wallace had a $70,000 tax lien filed against him in Maryland for taking state tax credits while living in South Africa and not meeting associated residency requirements. (Dem Candidate Received State Tax Credits While Living in South Africa, The Washington Free Beacon, Joe Schoffstall, 09/12/2018)

In response, Republican Party of Pennsylvania Communications Director Jason Gottesman made the following statement:

“With a number of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Congressional candidates flagrantly transgressing the law or benefitting financially from sweatshop-like conditions in China one must ask: how low can their hypocrisy go?

“These cases of Democrats skirting the law to their personal benefit are the latest examples of the left’s ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ approach to government that is abhorrent to law-abiding citizens who seek the best out of their elected officials.”

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