Teresa's tax returns

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It is safe to say that if John Kerry had lost his Senate re-election bid to Republican Gov. William Weld in 1996, Mr. Kerry would not be the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee today. Mr. Weld, who won re-election as governor in 1994 with 71 percent of the vote, was a formidable opponent. In a novel arrangement, both candidates pledged to limit the use of their families' personal wealth to $500,000 for the general election.

Mr. Kerry, whose campaign outspent Mr. Weld's $12.6 million vs. $8 million, won the race with 52 percent of the vote. Post-election finance reports revealed that he received a last-minute $1.7 million infusion from his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who inherited the Heinz ketchup fortune from her first husband. Ever the master of nuance, Mr. Kerry claimed not to have violated the $500,000 agreement because the $1.7 million was a loan, not a contribution.

Having rescued her husband's political career with a well-timed loan eight years ago, Mrs. Kerry, who files her tax returns separately from her husband, now refuses to release those documents, claiming a right to privacy. "As she is not a candidate for any office," her chief of staff, Jeff Lewis, told the Boston Herald last week, "she will not be making any additional disclosures" beyond the information that is contained in the far less informative financial documents Mr. Kerry files with the Senate. However, by funneling nearly $2 million into her husband's 1996 campaign, Mrs. Kerry effectively relinquished any practical, if not legal, right to privacy.

Recent declarations, moreover, confirm that the fortune of Mrs. Kerry continues to weigh heavily in her husband's political life. While she contributed the legal individual maximum donation of $2,000 to her husband's presidential primary campaign, she and Mr. Kerry have, according to the April 24 issue of the National Journal, "refused to rule out the possibility of her making an independent campaign expenditure on his behalf." She has threatened to launch an "independent" issue-ad campaign if she feels "the family is attacked," an aide told The Washington Post.

Mr. Kerry has suggested that inquiring minds review his Senate financial disclosures, which he claims to be "very, very, very intrusive." Noting Mr. Kerry's campaign against "Benedict Arnold CEOs" who export jobs, Business Week took a look and found that Mr. Kerry owns as much as $650,000 of stock in several U.S. multinational corporations that outsource work, including General Electric, Procter & Gamble and Verizon. But those forms exclude details relating to possibly controversial charitable contributions and the use of questionable tax shelters, which would be available from tax returns.

As the principal financier of her husband's 1996 senatorial campaign, Mrs. Kerry long ago forfeited her claim of privacy. She should release her tax returns.