C’mon, Jason, just a quick flash. Please. Bill let us look at his.
Jason Plummer, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, finally found a way to get his name on the Internet by refusing to release his tax returns. Plummer is a wealthy young man whose family owns a lumber yard in Edwardsville. Beyond that, it’s nobody’s business, he’s saying.
“I personally believe, like many other statewide candidates and public officials in Illinois, that the issue of releasing individual tax returns is often used to serve as a political distraction by those who can not answer the real issues that voters care about,” Plummer said in a statement.
Instead of worrying about how much money he makes, Plummer says, voters should be concerned about “the Blagovjevich/Quinn politics of the past."
Did Plummer learn nothing from his running mate?
Bill Brady spent a week resisting Gov. Pat Quinn’s call to release his tax returns, before grudgingly arranging a three-hour viewing at his Springfield campaign headquarters. There, we found out why Brady didn’t want to reveal his finances: in spite of a $75,000-a-year job as a state senator, Brady didn’t pay any federal income taxes in 2008 and 2009.
It might have been a one- or two-day story, but Brady’s tease kept it in the news for seven days. Seven days when he could have been linking Gov. Quinn to Rod Blagojevich.
Since Plummer won’t release his taxes, the Quinn campaign is helpfully providing speculation.
Politics
“Is it possible that he didn't pay any taxes as well?” campaign spokeswoman Mica Matsoff said in a statement. “Or is there something else? What is he hiding? After the last two scandal-plagued administrations, voters and taxpayers want to be sure of the openness and honesty of their public officials. If Jason Plummer can’t meet that test -- Illinois residents deserve to know why.”
As long as Jason Plummer sits on his tax returns, voters are going to assume that he didn’t pay any, just like Brady. Maybe that’s true. If it is, it’ll be another one-day story. If we never find out, it’ll be a story until November.
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