Dem
51
GOP
49
He may win, and he may lose, but whatever happens, Herschel Walker (R) is a serious contender for the most flawed U.S. Senate candidate of all time. And yesterday, there were two more stories adding to the vast pile of skeletons that have piled up during his race against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA).
First, the woman who accused Walker of pressuring her into an abortion (the second woman, not the first) has come forward with considerably more evidence in support of her story (which Walker has, thus far, denied). Maybe he will now change course and admit that he did indeed know the woman and that he may indeed have encouraged her to abort. That is how things unfolded with the first woman. But even if Walker continues to deny, deny, deny, this will serve to remind everyone yet again that he does not practice what he preaches when it comes to being anti-abortion.
And then there is Walker's 2022 tax return. It turns out he took the "homestead tax exemption," which gives a homeowner a tax break of $1,500 on their primary residence. What's the problem here? Well, the exemption is a privilege granted by Texas law for primary residences in Texas. In other words, Walker's tax return asserts that he lives in Texas and not in Georgia. And that means he might well be guilty of violating tax laws in Texas and election laws in Georgia. Certainly, it is yet another reminder for voters that he's a carpetbagger who really lives in the Garden St... er, the Lone Star State.
And maybe we're odd, but what really sticks out to us is that Walker did this... for $1,500. That's not nothing, but it's not all that much money. Does he have that little regard for the law? Does he care that little about his Senate campaign, and the risk that he'll be perceived as an outsider? Is his business "success" so limited that $1,500 makes a meaningful difference to his bottom line? It just looks really bad, on the whole. The only good things for Walker in all of this is that the news broke the day before Thanksgiving, so maybe it will escape many voters' attention. Or maybe not; our guess is that people working for Warnock will be earning overtime today as they put together a new campaign ad that advises Georgians of the news. (Z)