Tax assessor says Alaska’s Senate hopeful was Md. resident

Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan (R) was a Maryland resident for tax purposes while he lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area from 2006 through 2008, according to the state’s tax assessor.

{mosads}The comments come in response to an inquiry from the Alaska Democratic Party into whether Sullivan properly claimed principal residency tax breaks while living in Montgomery County, Md. during that period.

Sen. Mark Begich’s (D-Alaska) allies made the inquiry in order to draw attention to Sullivan’s time outside the state. Begich and his allies have long sought to paint Sullivan as an outsider and undercut his state ties.

“It is the determination of the Department that Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan are deemed residents of Maryland at that property address for the period in question. Therefore, the property tax benefits received were properly granted,” Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation Director Robert Young says in an email to the head of the Alaska Democratic Party after reviewing whether the ‘principal residence’ tax credits were properly claimed at the Montgomery County, Md. home.

Sullivan grew up in Ohio and moved to Alaska in the late 1990s but lived in suburban Maryland from 2006 to 2008 while he served in the Bush administration and in the Marines. He claimed the suburban D.C. home as his primary residency for tax purposes while living on the East Coast, though he also maintained a home in Alaska during that period. He’s since served as attorney general and natural resources commissioner for the state.

He listed himself as an Alaska resident since 1997 on his Federal Election Commission campaign filing, which Begich’s campaign has charged is misleading.

Sullivan’s campaign has said he only left Alaska to serve his country after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and continued to vote in Alaska while he worked for the national government.

“Mark Begich has made it abundantly clear he is willing to say or do anything to shamefully distort Dan’s record, and this time was clearly no different,” said Sullivan spokesman Mike Anderson. “Begich’s campaign has been one desperate attempt after another to distract from his failed record of telling Alaskans one thing, and then turning around and voting with Barack Obama 97 percent of the time.”

This post was updated at 7:55 p.m.