Candidates battle over releasing tax returns
Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, seeking to contrast himself with his wealthier opponents in this year's governor's race, released income tax returns for the past three years yesterday and urged his fellow candidates to do the same.
He was rebuffed by all three: Democratic challenger Deval Patrick; Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, a Republican; and Christy P. Mihos, a Republican considering running as an independent, said they are not releasing their returns.
Reilly's decision to divulge his personal financial records is his latest attempt to set himself apart from his three challengers for the corner office. Patrick is a former well-paid executive at two top corporations. Healey, along with her husband, is worth millions. Mihos is a well-heeled convenience store magnate from Cohasset.
Returns provided by Reilly's campaign show that he and his wife, Ruth, a former school teacher in Belmont, made an average of about $170,000 in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Reilly will release his 2005 returns after he files them, said campaign spokesman Corey Welford.
''Most of the focus will and should be on our positions, our visions, our experience, and the fights we've taken on," Reilly said in a statement. ''People also deserve to know how we earn a living, where our money comes from, and what financial interests we have."
Reilly's opponents accused him of political gimmickry.
Patrick spokesman Kahlil Byrd said in an e-mail that Patrick files his returns jointly with his wife, who is a Boston lawyer, and that ''he sees no need or purpose in invading her privacy, too."
Mihos, who said he plans to file campaign papers in the next couple of days with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, said Reilly's move indicates that he doesn't have anything weighty to propose.
''There are so many issues up there that are hurting the taxpayers of the Commonwealth, and I'd rather talk about that as time goes on than be gimmicked to death," Mihos said in a phone interview.
A spokesman for Healey, Tim O'Brien, also attacked Reilly.
''Lieutenant Governor Healey will not be releasing her tax returns, just as she, Governor [Mitt] Romney, and many other candidates chose not to do during the 2002 campaign," O'Brien said. ''Every year, she makes a full financial disclosure required by law and will continue to do so."
Healey and other top state officials are required to file annual financial disclosures with the state Ethics Commission.
Income tax returns often become a point of contention in campaigns for elected office, including in several recent gubernatorial contests in Massachusetts.
In this year's gubernatorial race, Reilly has made much of his hardscrabble upbringing in Springfield. He lost two brothers and his father by 16, struggled in high school, and eventually became the first in his family to attend college.
''I am a minority in this campaign," Reilly told a gathering last month at a Dominican restaurant in Roxbury, the Boston Phoenix reported. ''I'm the only one who's not a millionaire."
Reilly and his wife rent an apartment near Watertown Square. The Reillys also own a vacation home in Chatham assessed at about $485,000, according to his campaign.
Healey, raised in modest circumstances in Florida, now owns five houses with her husband, Sean, that are worth about $9 million in all. The couple's wealth stems largely from his 20 years as president and chief executive of
Mihos's wealth stems in part from a decision in 1998 to sell his Brockton-based convenience store chain, Christy's Market Inc., to the Dallas company that operates
Patrick, who grew up poor on Chicago's South Side, became a top prosecutor in the US Justice Department under President Clinton. He also worked as general counsel for two leading corporations, Texaco and
Patrick and his campaign have been reluctant to talk about his personal finances, but public records and newspaper reports indicate that he earned millions as general counsel for Coca-Cola, which he left in 2004. The
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 
