Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 | 2 a.m.
A California residence tied to dermatologist Jeffrey Ross Gunter — who is running for U.S. Senate in Nevada — had racked up nearly $45,000 in delinquent property taxes in Los Angeles County, according to public records analyzed by the Sun. The Republican hopeful, however, paid the outstanding amount just before this story’s publication.
The property, which is listed by the assessor’s office as a 9,301-square-foot house with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms, was listed by Gunther as his mailing address for a political contribution last year made to then-Nevada Republican U.S. Senate nominee Adam Laxalt, according to a filing from the Federal Election Commission.
The Los Angeles County treasurer and tax collector does not list publicly when exactly the property went into delinquency, but notes the parcel went into default in 2023 and had an outstanding amount of $45,289 as of Friday. The house, built in 2001, sits on a 28,800-square-foot parcel with a total assessed value of $6.9 million, according to property records.
The property has an estimated worth of $17.2 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Gunter told the Sun on Wednesday the delinquency was an “oversight” among his accountants, who assist with his personal and business assets, and that the issue was immediately fixed when brought to his attention.
“I love my team,” Gunter said. “And sometimes mistakes happen. But we resolved it almost immediately. I’ve lived in Clark County for a few years, but my ties to Nevada go back decades.”
The assessor’s website has since updated the tax roll to reflect a $44,696.18 payment made Aug. 31, and the Gunter campaign shared with the Sun a receipt from the tax collector for a payment in the same amount.
Erica Knight, a spokeswoman for Gunter’s campaign, said the Sun’s initial inquiry alerted Gunter of the delinquency. She added Gunter — who served as U.S. ambassador to Iceland from 2019 to 2021 under former President Donald Trump — now resides in Clark County, and that the L.A. home is not his primary residence.
“One of the reasons they left California years ago to begin with was to live in a state that aligned with their values and freedoms,” Knight said via text message, adding he and his family purchased their Clark County home in 2019. “And that is one of the reasons he is running — to keep Nevada free.”
Gunter, who was born in California and has an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a medical degree from the University of Southern California, started his private practice in 1992. According to his website, he expanded his practice to rural Southern and Northern Nevada beginning in 1995, and today has locations in Pahrump and Henderson, along with several others in Arizona, California and Texas.
Campaign contributions associated with Gunter can be traced to 2008, according to records published by the Nevada secretary of state’s office. Gunter has made at least 21 contributions to local and statewide races totaling $29,550 since 2008. The majority of those were to several candidates running for the Nye County Commission, but donations were also made to candidates running for Nye County sheriff, district attorney, state Assembly and governor.
All but two of those contributions, however, were made from a commercial address in Lancaster, Calif., which a web search yielded as the location of one of Gunter’s dermatology offices. The only other address listed in contribution reports is a Pahrump address, also tied to a dermatology office.
In addition to his dermatology practice — Gunter has been licensed to practice in Nevada since 1994 — he is listed as an officer for DreamerDrops LLC and Heather’s Farmhouse LLC, a pair of Pahrump-based retailers of CBD products.
Voter rolls list his home address in Summerlin, but property tax records do not name him as the property owner.
Gunter was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to become chief diplomat to Iceland after being appointed by Trump in 2018. Gunter has donated more than $200,000 to political causes championing Trump, including contributions of $11,600 and $3,300 respectively to the Trump Save America political action committee and the Trump campaign, according to FEC records.
In 2020, CBS News cited “dozens” of sources including other diplomats, government officials and others that Gunter was “paranoid” over security concerns, resulting in a request to the State Department to carry a gun and a stab-proof vest, as well as have a security detail, while based in Iceland’s capital of Reykjavik.
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