Rep. Ruben Gallego is getting called out for hypocrisy in the wake of a news report that he claimed his Washington DC home as his primary residence on a VA backed loan mortgage application. His campaign claims he is an Arizona resident, but unless he lied on his mortgage documents, his legal residence is now 2,000 miles east of his congressional district.
Gallego may not be guilty of a crime, but he is being accused of hypocrisy. Political strategist Brian Anderson tweeted in response to the news, an old tweet of Gallego’s from May 2021:
“Scammers and conmen have to pay for their mortgages somehow.”
https://t.co/KmVjpiXPFy pic.twitter.com/Q00PEB2pBr
— Brian Anderson (@AZBrianAnderson) June 5, 2023
“The loan documents for the Washington property, obtained by POLITICO, confirmed he counts D.C. as his primary home even though his campaign maintains he resides in Arizona. Politically, it means the Democratic congressman aiming to take out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in a hotly contested race next year may have to explain why he declared he was primarily a resident of the nation’s capital.
The D.C. home loan came about 11 months after Gallego and his wife Sydney Barron Gallego refinanced their Phoenix home. In that case, the Gallegos signed a deed of trust in which they agreed to make that property their primary residence for one year, the Arizona loan document shows.
Gallego currently takes advantage of a homeowner rebate in Arizona that lowers tax burdens for residents who primarily live in the state, according to his 2022 Maricopa county property tax statement. The campaign said he does not receive a homestead tax credit on his D.C. property. Gallego has not been accused of wrongdoing in filling out the loan documents.”
“Legally, Gallego doesn’t have to live in his district to serve in Congress, this isn’t like legislative offices or most county offices,” said one election law expert. “but his campaign does have to consider the optics and potential legality of what he’s doing. Claiming two primary residences in two different states to obtain favorable terms and to meet the requirements of the loans, even though both claims can’t be simultaneously true, isn’t something the average person does or even thinks to do. So its another Washington D.C. elite that laws don’t apply to, running for office claiming to be for the average Joes.”
A similar problem recently engulfed a high-profile Arizona Republican, as State Senator Wendy Rogers also filed loan documents claiming her primary residence was far outside her legislative district. Unlike Gallego, Rogers must reside within her district to represent it, but so far no one seems to be pursuing the matter.
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