Want To Take On Trump In NY? Show Us Your Taxes, Some Dems Say

NEW YORK, NY — Donald Trump rejected a decades-long tradition for presidential candidates by refusing to release his tax returns. Now some of New York's top Democrats are accusing opponents of following the president's example and challenging their financial competency.

The New York State Democratic Committee's slate of candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general — Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and city Public Advocate Letitia James — have all released at least five years of tax returns, committee Chairman Byron Brown noted in a Sunday op-ed.

While some of their left-flank challengers are not necessarily opposed to doing the same, establishment figures argue candidates who want to take on a president who's kept his finances shrouded in secrecy have to be transparent with their own.

"To determine if someone is qualified to manage a $168 billion State budget, how they manage their own finances is indeed relevant," Brown said in a statement Monday. "We are not the party of Donald Trump. We are Democrats. We don't say one thing and do another."

The practice of statewide candidates releasing their tax returns goes back at least three decades, said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant who has previously worked for Cuomo. It's a "tried and true trick" candidates use to define themselves as more open than their opponents, he said.

Cuomo and Hochul, who's facing a spirited progressive challenge from City Councilman Jumaane Williams as she seeks a second term as Cuomo's lieutenant, both made their 2017 tax returns public in April.

Hochul has admonished Williams to reciprocate since New York Post reports two weeks ago detailed his struggles with a $10,000 tax debt, a home foreclosure and a loan for a failed business. A candidate who can't manage his own finances shouldn't be trusted with the the state's enormous budget, Hochul has argued.

James, whom the governor has embraced, released her five most recent returns on Friday and called on her opponents to follow suit. She faces law professor Zephyr Teachout, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and former Cuomo aide Leecia Eve in the Democratic primary.

"Unlike the President, I don’t need to keep secrets. My tax returns are out in the open," James said in a statement Monday. "New Yorkers deserve to know where candidates’ income comes from."

Cuomo spoke to the importance of such transparency last week. "The release of taxes is how people get a chance to see how you live your life," he said.

But some of the challengers in the three races have agreed to release their returns — or stood by what they've already put out — as the frontrunners have sought to make it a key issue.

Nixon disclosed her 2017 tax return not long after Cuomo released his in the spring. Campaign spokeswoman Sarah Ford said it's "laughable that Cuomo suddenly claims to care about transparency."

"Cynthia has already released a full year of tax returns-- more than Cuomo did when he first ran in 2010," Ford said in a statement. "This is nothing more than a political stunt."

Teachout's campaign said her returns would be released in the coming days. Williams had a similar response after Hochul agreed to debate him on Aug. 29. He told City & State her criticism of his finances proved she's out of touch as a "a millionaire, elitist, corporate Democrat."

"I only hope that when this disingenuous talking point is revealed for the phony attack that it is, the Lieutenant Governor and I can then discuss it and a variety of other issues in prime time for all New Yorkers to see," Williams said in a statement Friday.

While she did not directly address tax returns, Eve campaign spokeswoman Maggie McKeough said the candidate has provided "detailed financial disclosures" for two years as a new board member of Buffalo's Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and ahead of her confirmation to the Port Authority Board of Commissioners.

Maloney's campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Releasing tax returns should be a "gimme" for statewide candidates, Sheinkopf said. But tying them to Trump could be particularly effective at a time when the president and political corruption are hot issues for Democrats, he said.

"It weds the dislike of Trump with corruption, with failure to disclose, and it's kind of a great cocktail," Sheinkopf said. "You shake it, you don't stir it, and pour it and it creates chaos."

(Lead image: Photo by James R. Martin/Shutterstock.com)