The Rise and Possible Fall of “The Cajun John Wayne,” GOP Congressional Candidate Clay Higgins
GOP: party of choice for tax scofflaws.
“I get paid 1500 for a television production and a grand for a radio production, plus 150 an hour travel time and an additional grand for a photo session,” Higgins wrote in an email to Tony Morrow, a lawyer in Lafayette, Louisiana, who he had agreed to film television ads for. “That’s a total of 10 grand for the eight productions.”
But Higgins added an unusual request. “I prefer to get paid in cash,” he wrote. “I have my reasons for preferring cash, reasons best discussed, if need be, in person.”
Higgins did not report this money in financial disclosure forms for his campaign.
In other emails to his accountant this January, Higgins revealed that he was having $656 garnished from his wages by the IRS every month for back taxes and he wanted to pay a lower amount. This appears to be the reason Higgins requested cash payments — to make his on-paper earnings appear as low as possible and to keep the IRS from getting a piece of this side income. The St. Landry Parish clerk of court confirmed to Salon that Higgins had IRS liens for more than $44 thousand in back taxes, although their exact status today was unclear.
When reached for comment, the Higgins campaign’s communications director Chris Comeaux refused to tell Salon the exact amount Higgins owes today, blaming the issues on “leftwing media.”