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Dems’ bill targets Kasich’s finances
Two House Democrats on Thursday, May 6, targeted Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich and his personal finances with proposed legislation to require statewide, non-judicial candidates to disclose their federal income tax returns or amounts of income in a sworn statement.
“I’m not going to deny that Republicans have given us a political tool by nominating John Kasich for governor,” Rep. Mike Foley, D-Cleveland, originally from the Dayton area, said.
Kasich is a former Columbus-area U.S. House member and also a former managing director of Lehman Brothers. The company’s 2008 collapse has been blamed for the national economic meltdown.
Kasich campaign spokesman Rob Nichols sent an e-mail with this reaction:
“John and Karen have already released more information than they were required to and if the General Assembly changes the law, they’ll be glad to comply.
“Frankly, if Ted Strickland worried less about John’s money and more about the taxpayers’ money, maybe we wouldn’t be facing an $8 billion budget hole.”
Foley and Rep. Bob Hagan, D-Youngstown, added, however, that they want to restore trust in government by requiring candidates to be transparent with their personal finances. Their proposal is patterned after a Florida law, they said. It would require reporting financial records for four years and failure to comply would result in an ethics violation.
Kasich last month permitted a handful of reporters to examine but not photocopy a summary of his 2008 federal income tax return. The information showed that Kasich received a $432,000 bonus from Lehman Brothers in January 2008 for work done in 2007. It also showed that he and his wife had taxable income of more than $1.1 million in 2008.
Kasich is running against Democratic incumbent Gov. Ted Strickland who recently released his federal income tax returns for 2006-2009. During the 2006 governor’s race, he released earlier tax returns. Strickland called on Kasich to release his tax returns for the past 10 years.
Strickland’s returns showed that he and his wife Frances had total income of $166,321 in 2009, mostly from his $142,356 salary as governor, and $116,783 in taxable income after deductions and exemptions.
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Comments
By Clif
May 30, 2010 12:00 PM | Link to this
Leslie is nuts. Since when are Democrats the ones doing class warfare? What about all the talk about John Kerry, and the liberal elitists… and the real heartland? Your own statement says that “only Democrats can be rich”, therefore showing you’re playing the class warfare game as you’re complaining about class warfare. This idiot isn’t be attacked because he is rich. He is being attacked because he became rich while being a major player in a corporation that drove our national economy into the ground and lost every single dime the investors put into it. Now he wants to be entrusted with the economy of a state. If his time at Lehman Brothers is used as an example, he’ll raise the Governor’s salary to 1.2 million a year, bankrupt the state within 8 years, and then give himself a $400,000 bonus to finish off his second term.
By Leslie
May 10, 2010 8:49 AM | Link to this
Why does it matter how much money or personal worth a candidate is? What point are the democrats trying to make? Is it that only democrats can be rich. The democrats want to play class warfare. I am so sick of them creating this class warfare, race warfare culture. Democrats need to stop this nonsense. Democrats need to stop creating the hate.