Once Bluestem read Torrey Westrom's Financial Disclosure Statement, on file with the Clerk of the House of Representative's and linked within the Hot Dish blog's post GOP challenger Torrey Westrom has hefty credit card, student loan debt, we wondered about item's focus.
Westrom is challenging veteran Blue Dog Democrat Collin Peterson in Minnesota's Seventh District, which extends across much of the western part of the state.
Student loan debt for a relatively recent law school grad? Perish the thought. Credit card debt for a couple who run a small business? Also not exceptional.
We also chuckled at conservative blogger Bill Glahn's reaction, The Media’s Obsession with Republican Money. Glahn's thesis is that the legacy media is only concerned with Republican money, not DFL money. That should come as quite to Tim Walz, whose credit card debt was widely reported in 2007. MinnPost's Conrad Wilson reported tht the debt was an issue in Walz's 2008 race in Consumer debt an issue for some of state's congressional delegation, too. The latter report mentions the student loan debt owed by 2008 DFL MN03 challenger Ashwin Madia as well.
TSI Real Estate LLC
Bluestem finds the rental real estate holdings listed on the report to be far more interesting. Here are screenshots of Westrom's "Schedule II--Assets and "Unearned" Income, rotated so that readers don't have to experience neck strain to read the sideways report at the Clerk of the House's site.
According to our calculations, the eighteen properties listed on the federal officeseeker disclosure statement will bring in between $194,518 and $565,000 for the current year. The federal forms do not require property descriptions, as does the state counterpart (Westrom's state disclosure is found here), and so it's difficult, though not impossible, to identify the properties via free resources online.
Finding Westrom's properties
Many counties contract property title searches with pay-per-search or subscription services, but not all do, while simply using "TSI Real Estate" as a search term brings up some results.
The Madelia property, for instance, is located in Watonwan County, Minnesota, a largely rural county west of Mankato; the county's Beacon portal allows free searches. Typing in TSI Real Estate yields one property (screenshot below)
A couple of things are notable about this TSI asset. First, it was purchased in June 2012 from the USDA Rural Housing Service for $197,250.
Second, there's no corresponding mortgage listed under Westrom's "liabilities" section. Since the property is listed as an asset, Bluestem would think that any liability connected with the real estate should also be listed on the report.
Third, like most of the TSI Real Estate LLC properties, it's not listed on Westrom's state EIS. It's not possible to determine if the Elbow Lake property and mortgage in the federal statement is the Elbow Lake property in the state declaration, nor if the Kasson property listed on the state disclosure is the same one as on the federal statement. Only the one listed on the federal statement is connected to a mortgage.
However, this difference appears to be created by different disclosure laws on the state level. According to a response to an emailed inquiry, Gary Goldsmith at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board writes:
Our statutes recognize a corporation, or an LLC, as a separate entity from the people who own its stock.
Minnesota Statutes section 10A.09 requires disclosure of real property interests held by the official or by a partnership in which the official is a partner. However, the disclosure does not extend to corporations or other forms of organization, such as LLCs.
Thus, if the properties are held in the name of an LLC, they would not be disclosed on an individual’s economic interest statement. If the individual has an ownership interest in the LLC above the disclosure threshold or receives income from it above the disclosure threshold, those relationships would be disclosed.
Westrom's role as President of TSI Real Estate LLC is noted on his state EIS; the LLC's are legally separate and thus do not need to be listed. As is apparent in the listing in the federal statement, this is not the case in the federal rules.
Mortgage on Madelia property
Via a reader in the Madelia area, Bluestem has obtained photos of a mortgage and other public documents related to the 304 Sixth St SW in Madelia that is owned by TSI Real Estate LLC, presumeably the property listed in Westrom's federal financial disclosure statement. All of the documents are on file in the Watonwan County Courthouse.
Here's the mortgage, between TSI Real Estate LLC and Farmers State Bank of Madelia (now owned by Pioneer Bank):
Here's a photo of the amount of the mortgage, $189,750.00:
Apparently, the building was is sorry shape before TSI Real Estate bought it, as the seller, the United States Department of Agriculture, put a "Notice of Residential Occupancy Restriction" on the property before it could be inhabitable:
There's evidence in the Watonwan County Courthouse that TSI Real Estate did do work to improve the property: a mechanic's lien statement for $3415.65 to Vee Plumbing of Madelia. The lien was filed on February 24, 2014.
We'll have more on the wheelings and dealings of TSI Real Estate LLC and its president, endorsed Republican MN07 congressional candidate and Minnesota state senator Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake) as we dig this stuff up.
Presumably the DCCC's research interns have dug up this stuff (and more!) as well, so maybe they can fax more information to the Star Tribune crack reporters.
Photo: State Senator Torrey Westrom, official portrait, via Minnesota Senate.
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