Kernan, Daniels both agree to release tax, income figures

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Joe Kernan released his state and federal income tax returns for the past four years on Friday and challenged Republican opponent Mitch Daniels to do the same. The governor said the public "has a right to know" about their financial histories.\nUnlike Kernan, Daniels is a multimillionaire.\nThe Daniels campaign disclosed his federal income tax returns for 2002 and 2003 and immediately provided the media with summary pages.\nCampaign manager Bill Oesterle said Daniels was happy to disclose the full state returns for all four years and the other federal returns covering 2000 and 2001. He said they were trying to obtain them from an accountant, and because Kernan's "challenge" came late Friday afternoon, it likely would be Monday before they would be available.\nOesterle did provide total income figures for Daniels and his wife, Cheri, in 2000 and 2001, however. Total income in 2000, when Daniels was an executive at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., was $1,929,018. Oesterle said total income in 2001 was $27,211,018.\nOesterle said more than 90 percent of that $27 million resulted from Daniels liquidating his stock holdings, a move Daniels says he made to meet federal conflict-of-interest standards when he became White House budget director under President Bush. Mrs. Daniels does not work outside the home.\nJoint federal returns for the Daniels' showed total income of $696,317 in 2002 and $1,017,813 in 2003. Daniels stepped down as budget director in June 2003 so he could run for governor.\nJoint returns for Kernan and his wife Maggie showed total income of $182,002 in the year 2000, $210,008 in 2001, $181,702 in 2002 and $110,558 last year. The vast majority of that was in wages.\nKernan was lieutenant governor from 2000 through September 2003, when he was sworn into office following Gov. Frank O'Bannon's death. His wages over the four years ranged from $79,811 to $90,056.\nMrs. Kernan has worked as a marketing specialist at 1st Source Bank. Her wages over the four years ranged from a high of $104,441 in 2001 to a low of $46,604 in 2003, when she became Indiana's first lady.\nThe Kernan campaign said there had been media interest in seeing the returns.\n"The public has a right to know about candidates' financial histories and what may or may not be influencing the way we view certain issues," Kernan said in a news release from his campaign. "That's why we're willing to release this information.\n"This time period of four years will give voters an accurate picture of our financial affairs, as well as those of my opponent," Kernan said. "I am hopeful he is willing to share the same documents with the public."\nIn an e-mail pitch for campaign cash earlier this year, Kernan told thousands of supporters that Daniels might spend millions "of his own personal fortune in an effort to try and buy this election." The Daniels campaign said that was a personal attack and cheap ploy to raise money.\nDaniels, a former executive for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., listed his net worth a few years ago at $15.7 million. He disclosed the figure as part of confirmation proceedings he went through in becoming White House budget director in 2001.\nOf the total, $8.8 million was in stocks, almost $5.4 million was in retirement plans and the rest was from real estate and other assets.