Newsom: Ballot Shenanigans?

Willie Brown's column in the Sunday Comicle is always fun to read.  Willie toes the Left line but does it with humor and even an occasional zinger pointed left that exposes some truth.  We got that yesterday when he wrote

Slippery slope: It will be interesting to see what effect the new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom requiring presidential candidates to submit five years of income tax returns before qualifying for the California primary ballot will have on elected offices here in California.

My question is, how long will it be before someone calls for mayoral candidates or county supervisor candidates or school board candidates to release their tax returns in order to qualify for the ballot as well?  We are headed to the point where a person’s private tax returns are going to be, in effect, public records.

File that in the "good-for-the-goose-good-for-the-gander" pile.  I have personal experience with the financial filing requirements that are already in place since my wife's 12 years on the city council made for plenty of filings.  The first thing to note is if someone is filing jointly then it's not just their private return but the non-candidate spouse's return as well.  When I realized that certain assets like individual stocks had to be reported (for conflict of interest concerns) but mutual funds and ETFs did not, I moved money from A to B.  I didn't really want to but it made filing a lot easier.  Secondly, I have to study my own tax returns to understand them-- that's why I pay someone real money to complete them.  Can you imagine some journalist trying to parse a bunch of returns on deadline and come up with something newsworthy?  I can't.  Lastly, there are a lot of hurdles already in place for local candidates, especially first-timers, so adding another would seem to defeat the purpose.  But, what's good for the goose has to be good for the gander.  I'm with Willie on this one.

Comments

[GoneNewson]

Recall Newsom Petition: Sign it. This guy is a very dangerous person. https://www.change.org/p/joshua-lindsay-recall-california-governor-davin-newsom

[Joe]

Here is the other fun Letter to the Editor of the WSJ:

Newsom Out-Putins Putin

How much should we worry about Russia interfering with our election?

Regarding your editorial “California Bans Trump” (Aug. 1): How much should we worry about Russia interfering with our election if we already have California Gov. Gavin Newsom rigging the ballots?

Raleigh Coffin

Vero Beach, Fla.

[good for the goose]

If Newsom gets his way on this maybe Californians should have to prove their eligibility to vote?