Dr. Bob Lorinser served overseas as a Diplomat for ten years — Pakistan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Morocco, and Iraq — but when he came home on leave, he arrived back to his home in Marquette County.
Jack Bergman, Dr. Bob's opponent, says he is a "snowbird." From every Labor Day through Memorial Day, he lives in Louisiana when not in D.C. That's 270+ days in Louisiana and 90 days or less outside Watersmeet, MI. To us, unless you're retired and worked and paid taxes here during your career, that would make him a Louisiana resident, not a Yooper, not a Michigander.
If that doesn't seem right to you, if you believe your Representative should pay his fair share of taxes to Michigan, we need your help getting Dr. Bob Lorinser to Congress. If you want your Congressman to tell the truth, to live in the area in which he seeks to represent, can you make a contribution today?
EAGLE HARBOR — At a rare event in Eagle Harbor last week, Jack Bergman stated that he has lived in Watersmeet since 1996 and pays his taxes there.
Is that the whole story? No.
Why do we believe Jack Bergman is really a Louisiana resident? Not only is he out of touch with Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan values, voting against veterans, the Soo Locks, infrastructure, and hunting and fishing rights, he doesn't actually live here.
Now the rest of the story.
He states his primary residence is his $875,000 valued summer cottage on Sylvan Isle Drive built in 1993 on Thousand Island Lake, 10 miles west of the tiny hamlet of Watersmeet (pop. 400). The cottage is deep inside the Ottawa National Forest, only a few miles from the Wisconsin border.
But, others had him living in a condo he owned at 655 Woodside Creek in Saline, Michigan, from 1998-2007 that he called his business for his company of one (him) and a tax deduction, maybe?
Was this done so he could falsely claim his summer cottage as his Michigan principal residence, save 18 mills of property tax on the more expensive property, and deny Gogebic County hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxes?
A homeowner’s principal residence is defined as “the one place where an owner of the property has his or her true, fixed, and permanent home to which, whenever absent, he or she intends to return, and that shall continue as a principal residence until another principal residence is established.” Property owners may claim only one exemption. Shouldn’t his principal residence be Louisiana?
Ask him about his palatial $570,000 home in Saint Francisville, Louisiana, inside the Bluffs on Thompson Creek Country Club, where he lives nine or more months every year since August of 2007.
It's time for Jack Bergman to answer tough questions about his residency. What about his Saline condo? Bergman's previous neighbors stated he lived there from 1998-2007. So, how could he live at the summer cottage? If he lives in Watersmeet, when did that start year-round? For years the road wasn't plowed, nor was the place heated.
Jack Bergman, tell your constituents about your Louisiana home.
Tell the people how many days a year you lived in Michigan vs. Louisiana after you bought your home there. If you want a Representative to tell the truth and to live here, Dr. Bob Lorinser will be honored to earn your vote. We need fiercely independent truth-tellers in Congress. A contribution today will be a big help in Dr. Bob Lorinser's effort to send Jack Bergman home.
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