Ex-Biden DOJ official running for Congress says rent is ‘too damn high’ — while holding millions in real estate
Ex-Biden Justice Department official Maggie Goodlander, who is running for Congress as a Democrat in New Hampshire, says rents in her state are “too damn high” — while simultaneously holding millions of dollars in dozens of real estate assets, including a Florida golf course and a Granite State casino.
Goodlander, who is also married to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, said in a May 14 radio appearance on WGIR-AM’s “New Hampshire Today with Chris Ryan” that “housing is top of mind” for her prospective constituents.
“The rents are too damn high and the cost of buying a home, which is really at the core of the American dream, has been completely unmanageable,” she said.
But that hasn’t been the case for Goodlander, who recorded between $6 and $30 million in trust funds with extensive real estate holdings, according to her husband’s 2024 federal financial disclosures, obtained by The Post.
The trust funds are exclusively Goodlander’s and she netted between roughly $200,000 and $2 million in income last year from interest, capital gains, rent or royalties.
One of the funds gathers interest from Florida golf courses, including the Citrus Hills Golf and Country Club in Hernando, where membership fees cost more than $2,000 annually.
Another fund curiously identifies Boston Billiards as an HVAC company in New Hampshire, which The Post was unable to find in Granite State public records searches though there is a Centorr Vacuum Industries located at the same address.
However, a Boston Billiard Club and Casino in Goodlander’s birth city of Nashua was rebranded as the Gate City Casino after being purchased by the billion-dollar hospitality and entertainment company Delaware North, the New Hampshire Business Review reported this past August.
Other properties include office buildings, industrial parks, other commercial and residential real estate, undeveloped land and land leased to Canadian gas company Irving Oil.
“At the Department of Justice, Maggie championed renters and homebuyers by taking on corporations that are jacking up prices, and she has been clear from day one that she will bring those same values to Congress,” the campaign of Maggie Goodlander for Congress said in a statement.
Goodlander’s grandfather, Samuel Tamposi, was the largest commercial real-estate developer in New Hampshire at the time of his death in 1995, with around 400 properties in the Granite State and Florida worth $70 million, the Nashua Telegraph reported in 2013.
Tamposi’s trust fund was later divided among his six children, half of which deferred, allowing the assets to be passed straight to his grandchildren.
Goodlander and Sullivan also purchased a $1.2 million home in the coastal city of Portsmouth in 2018, The Daily Beast and New York Times reported.
“I am a renter, and there should be more renters in Congress,” Goodlander told the Boston Globe earlier this month in her first interview since declaring her candidacy.
During her “New Hampshire Today” interview in mid-May, Goodlander was asked about also leasing a home in Nashua, but did not mention the Portsmouth property.
“I’ve spent much of the last three years working in government to try to hold corporate monopolies accountable for what they have done and are doing to make life harder for hard-working people in this state,” Goodlander said of her campaign’s message to voters in the interview.
“We’re talking about the cost of living, the cost of basic necessities: health care, housing, food on our table,” she added, going on to tout her experience as deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s anti-trust division.
Goodlander’s property and trust fund holdings will draw scrutiny ahead of the competitive Sept. 10 Democratic primary in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, when she will face state Sen. Becky Whitley and Colin Van Ostern, the 2016 Democratic nominee for Granite State governor and a former campaign manager for current Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster, who is retiring after this term.
Van Ostern is endorsed by Kuster as well as former New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, who remains a popular figure in state Democratic circles.
Goodlander’s recent move back to her home state after her stint in Washington has also led to accusations of carpetbagging following her May 9 campaign announcement.
Voting records reported by the Times show Goodlander hasn’t voted in New Hampshire’s 2nd District since 2008, when she was still an undergraduate at Yale University.
Correction: An earlier version of this article inaccurately identified the purchaser of City Gate Casino as ECL Entertainment. Delaware North purchased the Gate City Casino.
