Thursday, January 19, 2012

Hinz Clues In to John Tree Foreclosure Fiasco In IL-10 (UPDATED with Sheyman Fundraising Numbers)

As simply an amateur, part-time political blogger, it's always nice to see the MSM pick up on something that you broke, oh a few months ago, finally get some attention.

This time, it's Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business who has picked up on the personal problems of 10th Congressional District Democratic hopeful John Tree. We reported on this back in mid-November of last year. We might add that, at that time, Hinz was gushing over Tree as having a resume out of central casting. We, of course, did some digging and figured out about the foreclosure, among other troublesome bits of his personal history (Tree, not Hinz).

Hinz's research (which may have been spoon-fed to him by the campaign of Brad Schneider, one of Tree's primary opponents), however, uncovered even more than we reported, which is that in addition to the foreclosure of a home in Elmhurst associated with his first marriage, there is also, according to Hinz, a foreclosure proceeding currently going on with respect to his current home with his second wife (got all that?).

There's a little more, though. When confronted by Hinz for the story, Tree's campaign manager, Pete Giangrco, tried to explain away the first foreclosure on the Elmhurst house by noting that Tree's wife, not Tree, lived in it:

Pete Giangreco, the campaign's chief consultant, says that only Mr. Tree's ex-wife, not Mr. Tree himself, actually lived in the first house and the bank involved ended up accepting an outside sale.

I'm not sure why that's actually relevant, but I assume the implication here is that the house was occupied solely by Lisa Tree, John Tree's first wife, and the foreclosure was all her problem and fault, not his. I guess this was supposed to be where she lived without John Tree either during/after the divorce? The Hinz article does not go into any additional detail.

But, something doesn't add up. According to what we can see on the web, the Elmhurst house was purchased (by John Tree) for a tidy sum ($985,000). That's quite a set of digs to buy for your soon-to-be-ex-wife. The purchase date was 6/30/2005, assuming that info is accurate.

According to the DuPage County Court Clerk's site, though, the Tree/Tree divorce wasn't filed until August 2006.

So, John Tree bought his wife a house a year prior to their divorce being filed, for almost a million bucks, but he never lived in it?

If I were Brad Schneider's campaign, I'd keep digging and feeding Hinz that info. Hopefully we helped him out a bit. No thanks are necessary.

UPDATE: Steve Sadin at Patch reports that Ilya Sheyman's camp stated that he has raised $180,000 for the past quarter, crushing John Tree's $101,000 (of which $20K was a candidate contribution). Sheyman also got the endorsement of the Libertyville Democrats and the Lake County Federation of Teachers.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would you give Tree the federal treasury after he was foreclosed on TWICE?

Anonymous said...

^ Couldn't be any worse than Walsh

Team Amy doesn't whine about Walsh this much said...

bwahahahahahaha

Who knew? Brad Schnieder is Team America guest blogger!

No wonder the guy gave all that money to Capn Kirk the Pentagon Supreme Commander.

Anonymous said...

There is a big difference between foreclosure and short sale. Me thinks this might be a spin story and after all, many parts of the new 10th are in the old 8th and looked what they elected. A congressman with bankruptcy, foreclosures, lost driver's license and that 100K arrears in child support payments.

Anonymous said...

There is also a lot the same between a foreclosure and a short sale, i.e. you cannot be counted upon to fulfill your promises.

John Tree should better hope that he is being compared to someone other than Joe Walsh before too long.

Anonymous said...

A court order means "technically foreclosed?" A court order is a mere technicality? That sounds like "technically pregnant."

A lot of spinning going on with the Tree foreclosures.

Louis G. Atsaves

Anonymous said...

As to that house owned by Michelle Healy (but not John, right?), it's really just a crying shame that she can't afford the $41000 a year in house taxes. That's more than some people even make

bye Tree

Anonymous said...

One thing I'd like to learn is why JOhn Tree's name isn't on any of his mortgages. Perhaps he doesn't have the credit to have his name on a loan???

Anonymous said...

I just want to say again how embarassing it is for democrats in the wealthiest district in the state that the best they can come up with is a guy who was a moderate republican until 10 months ago with a campaign run by his kids playgroup, a 25 year old who lives in his parents basement and a "brand manager "with a foreclosure fiasco. Your political incompetence is starting to surpass your policymaking foolishness.

Have fun with this choice!

FOKLAES

TA better hope he dont get indefintely detanied! said...

If the guy wasnt on the morgtages why are teh bozos on the right wing like TA and lil Fokkker and Shcneider all whining about this?

Make up your minds.

And wake us all up when Dold moves out of his mommy and daddys Kenilworth mansion.