The sharpest moment of Thursday night's WMUR Granite State Debate came on a question about money — the candidates' own. With the on-screen question asking, "Should you provide a more detailed description of your finances?", Democrat Stefany Shaheen turned from her podium toward Republican Anthony DiLorenzo and went straight at the one subject his campaign has been pressed on all autumn: what his financial disclosure does not show.
Shaheen said she has no problem with DiLorenzo's wealth itself. She named it for the cameras: a "$40 million mansion on a private island," a "$19 million yacht," and a candidate who arrives at campaign events by helicopter. Her problem, she said, is that he is hiding "90% of his assets in offshore tax havens like the Turks and Caicos" — that "he is cheating the system and not paying his fair share." DiLorenzo cut in with four words: "That is not true." Shaheen shot back: "It is true." The exchange, clipped and posted by FactPost within hours, spread across social media overnight.
So what does the public record actually show? Some of it is documented, and some of it is not. DiLorenzo — the owner of Key Auto Group, with about 20 car dealerships and 11 collision centers, who has loaned his own campaign roughly $5.5 million — filed candidate financial disclosures with the Clerk of the House reporting total assets of only $1.8 million to $6.7 million. Aside from a single mutual fund in a 401(k), his only reported assets are interests in privately held companies, including three offshore reinsurance companies, and his filings show no bank or brokerage accounts at all. Those gaps are set out in a complaint the New Hampshire Democratic Party filed with the U.S. Department of Justice on October 14, alleging failures to disclose millions in assets and management positions as the Ethics in Government Act requires.
The complaint, citing Secretary of State and town assessor records, says he is the sole manager of companies that appear on neither disclosure, and that entities tied to him hold more than $103.8 million in property across four states. It notes he bought a $6.5 million private island and Portsmouth's $9 million McIntyre Building and donated $4 million to University of New Hampshire hockey — wealth that sits awkwardly beside the modest totals on his disclosure.
DiLorenzo's whole denial on the night was the interjection itself — "That is not true" — and neither he nor his campaign had published a fuller rebuttal by Friday. His campaign's standing explanation, given earlier in the campaign when the disclosure gaps were first reported, is that assets are held in a trust and that loans were taken from those trusts. After the debate, the state Republican chairman, Scott Maltzie, defended him in a statement: "Tonight, Anthony DiLorenzo stepped up for the people of New Hampshire. He showed that it is time for a common-sense businessman representing Granite Staters in Congress, not another corrupt politician looking to line her own pockets. Stefany showed her true colors. She is a one-trick-pony who continuously deceives voters. But Granite Staters saw right through that facade tonight." The statement did not address the offshore claim itself.
What has not been established, by any document or authority, is the heart of Shaheen's charge. The "90 percent" figure and the Turks and Caicos are her accusation, made live on television; no public record reviewed shows that share of his assets sitting in that or any other haven, and no authority has found that he cheated on his taxes. The documented offshore connection is narrower and comes from his own filing: the three offshore reinsurance companies he did disclose. The $40 million mansion figure is likewise hers — the island purchase on record cost $6.5 million.
New Hampshire's 1st District is open because Rep. Chris Pappas is running for the Senate, and it is one of the most watched House races in the country: the seat changed parties five times between 2006 and 2016, national Republicans list it as a top target, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has called it one of the five swing districts everyone will watch on election night. A Saint Anselm College poll on October 20 put Shaheen ahead 46 percent to 42 percent, inside the margin of error. Shaheen, a former Portsmouth city councilor who co-founded the health company Good Measures and is the daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, has run on taking on wealth and corruption; DiLorenzo, a first-time candidate endorsed by President Trump, has run as a self-made businessman.
For voters, the honest position, with the November 3 election days away, is this: a candidate for Congress is required by law to show the public what he owns and where his money sits, and DiLorenzo's filings show far less than his visible business empire would suggest — a gap a formal complaint now sitting with the Justice Department says he has never adequately explained. Whether the gap hides what Shaheen says it hides is, as of today, an accusation awaiting evidence — and it is now the loudest sound in the closing days of the race.
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