Opponent Loretta Sanchez does a Donald Trump act, refuses to release returns.
California’s Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris and her husband, attorney Douglas Emhoff, earned nearly $1.17 million in 2015 and paid almost $450,000 in state and federal income taxes, according to their 2015 tax returns.
The Sacramento Bee asked Harris and her opponent, Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange County, to provide copies of their 2015 returns as part of a longstanding practice of reviewing candidates’ financial records in major statewide races. Sanchez’ campaign has declined, reported Sacramento Bee.
Sanchez, who earns $174,000 a year as a U.S. representative, is married to attorney Jack Einwechter. They did not report his earnings on Sanchez’s annual financial disclosure statement.
Harris, the state attorney general, and Emhoff, a partner at Venable, where he oversees the firm’s offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, paid $371,954 in federal income taxes and $76,369 in state income taxes, after receiving an unspecified $35,952 state credit, the documents show.
She and Emhoff contributed $32,947 to charity, including $10,000 to UNICEF, the global humanitarian agency that works on behalf of children; $1,250 to University of Southern California, where Emhoff attended law school; $1,000 to the national nonprofit College Track and $100 to CASA of Los Angeles.
Their effective tax rate was 32 percent on the federal return and close to 40 percent combined.
The federal burden includes $43,843 in self-employment taxes, payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security. Subtracting that figure, and using the couple’s adjusted gross income of $1.17 million, their effective tax rate was 28 percent federally, and 35 percent combined, reported the Sacramento Bee.
Harris’ return, the second joint filing since she and Emhoff wed August 2014 in Santa Barbara, show they predominately derived their income from wages, which are taxed at higher rates than investments. Harris currently makes $158,775 annually, a salary established by an independent state panel.
It also shows the pair paid $1,239 for the mental health services tax, the 1 percent Proposition 63 levy on personal income over $1 million.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Sanchez’s campaign for Senate got a boost in a statewide straw poll taken last week. Problem is, only a few of the California residents who backed her will be voting for the Orange County congresswoman on Nov. 8. All prior polls had had Harris winning.
Sanchez won a resounding 58 percent to 41 percent victory over state Attorney General Kamala Harris in the California Student Mock Election, a biannual effort sponsored by the secretary of state to get middle school and high school students involved in the political process.
“It’s humbling to receive such overwhelming support from the next generation of voters,” Sanchez said in a statement. “Students want energy, passion and someone they can relate to. We all want a leader who isn’t afraid to be different and is willing to take on the popular kids.”
More than 170,000 students cast ballots in the mock election, which was conducted at schools across the state. Only a relative handful, though, will be 18 years old by election day and able to cast a vote for Sanchez that will count, reported the Chronicle.
In the presidential part of the student ballot, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump, 58 percent to 20 percent, with the rest of the vote going to minor party candidates.