Jackson Free Press

It's Election Day in Jackson—again.

Residents of northeast Jackson's Ward 1 are heading to the polls once more to select their representative to the city council.

The race between investment manager Ashby Foote and attorney Dorsey Carson will be decided after polls close this evening at 7 p.m.

The runoff has been relatively quiet, unmarked by debates and town halls that preceded the Dec. 2 regular election, but the campaign became contentious in recent days. Although the race is officially nonpartisan, Carson is a Democrat, and Foote is a Republican who has the backing of the local GOP officials. In recent days, a mailer began circulating reportedly produced by the Hinds County Republican Party that tied Carson to President Barack Obama.

Obama, an African American Democrat, is very unpopular among Mississippi Republicans, for whom Jackson's Ward 1 has remained a powerful stronghold. The mailer depicts a photoshopped Obama with his arm around Carson, even though the color of the president's hands in the photo don't match.

The push card, which apparently uses a photo from Carson's own campaign literature, also claims that Carson "criticized Mississippi to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder" over the state's redistricting plan. In addition, the flyer purports that Carson donated $500 to former Congressman Travis Childers over Sen. Thad Cochran in the recent U.S. Senate race.

Carson's camp got in on the mudslinging as well with their own mailer, pictured below, which appears to use a Jackson Free Press photo and mocks Foote's plan to overhaul the city's parking meter.

For his part, Carson has been trying to raise doubt in the minds of Ward 1's voters that Foote is the fiscal watchdog he purports to be, given a series of state and federal tax liens assessed against Foote and his wife on personal tax liabilities of $1,318, $39,947, $957, $46,642 and $75,673 between 1996 and 2012.

"We don't believe anybody should hold public office that owes the taxpayers money," Carson told the Jackson Free Press last week, referring to allegations Foote denies that he attempted to evade paying his income taxes.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. I've paid all my property tax, all my license (plate) tax, which is where the revenue for the city comes from. I pay sales tax just like everybody else does," Foote told the Jackson Free Press.

Foote has said that he paid all but the most recent lien, which he is paying off over three years. In several interviews, Foote has said the tax bills resulted from his investment firm, Vector Money Management, taking hits during times of national economic slowdown and that he made the decision not to lay anyone off at his small firm of three employees, including himself. The liens are for personal taxes on income he earned.

Carson believes Foote's $75,000 tax bill likely resulted from Foote earning personal income in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Foote also disputes this point, saying that Vector is organized as a "S corporation" under tax code, which the IRS defines as "corporations that elect to pass corporate income, losses, deductions and credits through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes.

IRS information states: "Shareholders of S corporations report the flow-through of income and losses on their personal tax returns and are assessed tax at their individual income tax rates. This allows S corporations to avoid double taxation on the corporate income."

Carson released five years' worth of joint tax records with wife, Susan, and called on Foote to do the same to give voters a clear picture of the candidates' finances. Foote said this morning that he would not take Carson up on the challenge.

Documents provided to reporters show the Carsons had $229,638 in adjusted gross income in 2013; the couple gave $11,532 to charity. Carson said he decided to make the financial disclosure and issue the challenge because Foote is campaigning as a fiscally conservative and responsible candidate.

Carson believes the fact he drives a 10-year-old sport-utility vehicle and founded his own law firm, The Carson Group, with personal savings, is evidence that he is the better financial manager and calls it "offensive" that Foote is running on a fiscal-responsibility message for the Dec. 16 runoff.

"You can't convince me that a fiscally responsible person who lives in a big house and drives a very expensive car cannot buckle their belt and pay taxes that you and I have to pay," Carson said, referring to Foote's Hummer H3 and home on Calnita Place.

"These are the same taxes that fix our streets, that fix our infrastructure. So he's robbing us. He's robbing the taxpayer. It's the money that goes into our education system. It's money that goes to pay cops and firemen. And yet, he wants us to send him to City Hall to manage a budget that's in need of some fiscal responsibility at a time when he's not doing it himself personally."

Foote shot back, calling the lien comparison to robbery "outright fabrication."

"The people of Jackson (don't want) that sort of grubbing around in the mud. They're interested in the future of Jackson. It's too important to get into a mud-wrestling contest," Foote told the JFP this morning.