Since the financial meltdown of September, 2008, it's a whole lot harder to get credit from a bank in this country.
But a local Democrat says that wasn't the case back in August for James Grant, the GOP nominee for the House district 47 race in northwest Hillsborough county. In August, Grant received a $40,000 loan from First Citrus Bank, which he subsequently put into his primary campaign account at the time.
But Christopher Mitchell, vice chair for the Hillsborough Democratic party, thinks there's something off about that.
"When you look at the facts in this case, " he said at a news conference on Wednesday held at the Hillsborough Democratic party headquarters in Tampa's Seminole Heights, "Republicans and Democrats alike should be equally outraged as to how a bank can loan $40,000 to a 28 year old, with only 10 months of work experience, a negative net worth, and only a $21,000 salary, with no home or car?"
Officially, Mitchell filed three complaints with the Florida Election Commission today.
Mitchell says that the $40K helped Grant at a critical time in his contested GOP primary battle against opponents Brian Blair, Irene Guy and Ken Aderhold.
When contacted today at his law office, James Grant said that the loan he received was a fully collateralized loan. "It's money paid to me," he said, adding that he is responsible for paying the loan back to the bank.
Grant is the son of former state Senator John Grant. Christopher Mitchell said, "It doesn't smell right here….I don't care what kind of collateral he has..he has $100,000 debt in student loans, and a $7,000 credit card amount and only $26,000 in a mutual fund. So where's that collateral? He's debt heavy. You tell me what bank would loan $40,000?…there had to be some strings pulled to get this loan."
Mitchell had himself been a Democratic candidate for the District 47 seat, before bowing down and allowing opponent Michael Steinberg to become the nominee earlier this year. He said he was persuaded to pursue action after reading an initial report on the loan in LaGaceta, the Ybor City based community newspaper.
"As I state in my complaint," Mitchell said in a formal statement, "during the course of this campaign, James Grant sent a series of mailers to registered voters. It appears that this expense was for the mailers that were sent for the Primary Election. It also appears that this expense was incurred when James Grant did not have funds on deposit in his campaign account to cover this expense and therefore had to borrow $40,000 from First Citrus Bank under terms clearly not usually available to the general public. This also appears to be a willing attempt by James Grant to conceal the actual facts from the public and his opponents to strategically win the election by posting such a large expense after the Primary Election."
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2010.