September 09, 2014 11:01 AM UTC

Dems To Beauprez: Release Those Tax Returns

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• by: Colorado Pols

A press release from liberal pugilist Mike Huttner's Making Colorado Great today kicks off the perennial "show us the money" soiree–which often isn't a big deal, but as we've seen with 2010 gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis–not to mention Bob Beauprez's close friend Mitt Romney–sometimes it is:

“We call on Bob Beauprez to immediately disclose his tax returns since his last run for office,” stated Michael Huttner, spokesman for Making Colorado Great.
 
In 2006, Beauprez’s campaign criticized his primary opponent—Mark Holtzman– for not disclosing his tax returns.  Specifically Beauprez’s campaign stated:  "It's vital that voters know their next governor doesn't have anything to hide. Any candidate in this race who's unwilling to disclose their taxes obviously has something to hide," said Beauprez’s spokesman. (Denver Post, April 5, 2006)

“We want to ensure that Beauprez is not hiding anything,” stated Huttner.  “We are simply asking of Beauprez what he demanded of his opponents when he ran last time,” Huttner noted.

Unless either Beauprez refuses to be fully forthcoming with his financial information–keep in mind that Gov. John Hickenlooper released decades of tax returns to the media in 2010 without complaint–or something turns up in Beauprez's financials since his last run for office that looks bad, this request is little more than a box to check off. If Beauprez is quick to disclose and there's nothing amiss, nothing will come of this and everybody moves on.

But given the discomfort financial disclosures often mean for wealthy Republican politicians (see McInnis, Romney), obviously, the question needs to be asked of Beauprez like anybody else. Does wealthy ex-banker Beauprez pay an embarrassingly low tax rate on an embarrassingly large amount of money? Does Beauprez's personal charitable giving offset his political demands to "cut government spending?"

You may consider the disclosure clock officially ticking.