Recall candidates might balk at new tax return rule

Need to show 5 years of filings could spook some challengers

The requirements for jumping into California’s looming recall election are a little trickier than last time around and may result in a much shorter ballot than voters saw in 2003 when they replaced then-Gov. Gray Davis with actor and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger.

To officially join the bid to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom this year, candidates must submit at least 65 nomination signatures, pay a filing fee of roughly $4,195 and — here’s the new twist — show five years of tax returns.

It’s that last rule that could give every Tom, Dick and Harry and adult film star Mary Carey pause before launching another quixotic campaign for governor. Eighteen years ago, candidates needed only to submit the 65 signatures and pay a $3,500 fee. The result? A comical field of 135 candidates running the gamut from Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock to child star Gary Coleman. The tax-return requirement is highly unusual — Vermont is one of the only other states that has something similar.

Larry Gerston, a political science professor emeritus at San Jose State University who co-wrote a book on the 2003 recall effort, thinks the new tax return requirement could make a very wealthy person or someone with controversial business dealings “think twice about” running.

But Gerston sees merit in the new law, which he calls “part of an effort to promote transparency at a time when so many people are skeptical about government and political officials and anything having to do with people running their lives.”

Like so much in politics these days, the story of California’s tax-return requirement begins with Donald Trump.

In 2019, California Democrats passed and Newsom signed a bill aimed at forcing then-President Trump to release his tax returns, a longtime practice he resisted, to appear on the ballot in 2020. But the law generated pushback from Republicans and the California Supreme Court struck down the part that related to presidential candidates.

However, the part of the law that applies to candidates for governor held, although without much notice. Still, there is some question about whether it should apply to the recall.

Some legal scholars have said it’s not clear the law, which refers to primary elections, also covers recalls, since a recall is a special election. But California Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office says its interpretation is that recall candidates do need to hand over their tax returns — and pointed to the 2003 recall, where the requirements for replacement candidates were based on primary election rules.

“I do think we all need to be really careful that if a piece of legislation is not written to cover certain actions, that it’s not required,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School.

Regardless, some of the most prominent candidates who intend to run against Newsom say they are prepared to do what it takes to land on the ballot, including the former mayor of San Diego, Kevin Faulconer.

“Mayor Faulconer is ready for this election any day, any time and he will meet every legal requirement needed to be on the ballot for this recall. Unlike Gavin Newsom, he isn’t afraid to face California voters and stand on his record,” his communications director, John Burke, said in a statement.

Whether other candidates stick with their plans to run in light of the tax requirement remains unclear. Polling shows Newsom with a serious edge.

Just 36% of voters support recalling the governor, according to a poll released in May by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley.

Just 22% of registered voters said they would be inclined to support Faulconer and Republican businessman and former 2018 contender John Cox, the challengers with the most support.

A spokesperson for reality TV personality Caitlyn Jenner, who is polling in the single digits, would only say her “campaign will meet all requirements of the recall election to throw Gavin Newsom out of office and finally end his time as governor.” But will Jenner — who earned money by (among other things) hawking Wheaties and playing a patrolman on the drama series CHiPs, has an estimated net worth of $100 million and was for more than 23 years married into the Kardashian family — really want that sort of scrutiny given the long-shot nature of her campaign?

A spokesperson for Carey, the adult film actress who ran in the 2003 recall and has promised to run again, did not respond to a request for comment.

While the secretary of state’s office says Newsom is not obligated to release his tax returns, since he is technically not a candidate in the race, a spokesperson for the sitting governor said he would release them.

“Absolutely,” said Nathan Click, pointing out that Newsom released tax returns spanning six years in his bid to become governor.

Gerston said the tax return requirement might give candidates like Jenner, who are polling poorly, cover to bow out of the race by suggesting the government shouldn’t be involved in their personal business.

But Levinson isn’t so sure.

“It looks like you have something to hide,” she said.

Levinson is skeptical the prospect of releasing tax returns will dissuade any serious candidates from running, and she isn’t convinced it will deter even the candidates just in it for the experience.

“The clown car is still going to be overfull,” Levinson said. “For sure.”