PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon governor candidate Chris Dudley once allowed firefighters to burn his house down as a training exercise and then took a $350,000 tax deduction for it.
Dudley’s aides call the deduction ethical and legal, but the Internal Revenue Service has since begun fighting such tax breaks. Oregon Democrats are criticizing the Republican candidate, who’s in a tight race with former Gov. John Kitzhaber.
After he retired from the Portland Trail Blazers, Dudley offered his house next to the Lake Oswego Country Club to the local fire department, which burned it in 2004.
The Oregonian and Willamette Week this week reported that Dudley then replaced the 4,500-square-foot house with one nearly twice as large, where he now lives.
