was whether or not mitt romney was qualified to be the governor of massachusetts. not in some abstract political sense but literally qualified. whether he met the written qualifications you have to meet in order to be allowed to run for governor of massachusetts. massachusetts has the oldest functioning written constitution in the entire world. and dating back to the colonial era, the law in massachusetts says that you have to be a continuous inhabitant of massachusetts for the seven years immediately prior to you running for governor or you cannot run for governor. in 2002, when mitt romney moved back to massachusetts from utah, to run for governor in massachusetts, that residency requirement was a big problem for him. he maintained publicly until june of that year when he was running he had always paid taxes as a massachusetts resident. this was going to be no problem. clearly he meant the residency problem, he had been paying
years in office. what about all those tax returns for those multiple years that mr. romney signed saying he wasn t a massachusetts resident? can t blame that on this reporter, can t blame that on the clerk in the tax assessor s office. he signed these tax returns. what s his explanation for that one? his explanation was that he never bothered to read that stuff he signed. listen to this. mr. romney said he had always trusted his accountants and signed and dated the returns. he said he did not notice that a line asking for his domicile was left blank on his returns, he said, i do not read those or review them when i sign them nor their attached schedules. as you re probably aware, your tax return is one of those things you submit. you sign and submit under the penalty of perjury. this is something that was pointed out to mr. romney when he testified before the massachusetts state ballot commission to try to be allowed to run for governor. quote, if i were to hand you an affidavit and ab
in your signature and said signed under the pains and penalty of perjury and said sign it, you would read it first, wouldn t you? romney, if you were to put it in front of me, yes. so you would sign documents under the pains and penalties of perjury without necessarily reading them, is that your testimony? romney, i have not read the entire massachusetts tax form nor the federal tax form, nor the utah tax form, and all them have me sign under pains of penalty, and i do not read the entire form. this was tern years ago. the residency challenge failed to keep mr. romney off the ballot in massachusetts. democrats tried it, but it did not work. but they were able to uncover about his tax history in trying to prove he wasn t really a mass masdz resident, showed that what he said was in his tax returns was not actually what was in his tax returns. mr. romney maintained publicly for months he was a massachusetts resident and he
attention because of the overall numbers showing president obama ahead of mr. romney in pennsylvania and ohio and florida, hotly contested swing states right now. honestly that s fine as far as august polling goes for a november election, which is not very far. but look at this other thing that was in the polls. look at the responses to this question. asked if candidates should release multiple years of their tax returns, the majority of voters in florida, in ohio, and in pennsylvania, all say presidential candidates should release several years of their tax returns. given the history here in massachusetts, maybe especially mitt romney should. joining us now is james roosevelt jr. the top lawyer for the massachusetts democratic party when mr. romney s tax returns were part of their challenge about whether or not mr. romney was a massachusetts resident or not. thank you for your time tonight. thanks for being here. glad to be with you, rachel. this is not a very complicated story, b