While Romney Is Poked, Tax Forms Are Tricky for Democrats, Too

July 11, 2012 -- When it comes to releasing tax forms, the issue du jour, Democrats have coordinated a campaign to embarrass Mitt Romney, who has refused to disclose more than one year of his taxes.

Some of the Democrats participating in the campaign, though, haven't released their own tax forms either. Others have, and at least one says he would do so if he were asked to.

None of them are required to, of course, and it's not routine for officials at the congressional and local level to do so.

Romney isn't required to either, but most presidential candidates since his father in 1968 have provided years of tax records.

ABC News reached out to the Democrats who have launched the tax offensive against Romney to ask about disclosing their own taxes; here's who has and who hasn't.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden
Job: President and vice president
What They Said About Romney: "What's important, if you are running for president, is that the American people know who you are what you've done and that you're an open book." (Obama) "Mitt Romney wants you to show your papers, but he won't show us his." (Biden)
Tax Status: Released

Obama and Biden have made public 12 years of tax returns, a feat that their campaign says Romney should match.

"There are two people running for President and only one of them, Mitt Romney, is flouting decades of precedent by refusing to release multiple years of tax returns," Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said in a statement. "Until he releases additional years of his returns, the American people can't know why he invested in offshore tax havens like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands -- either he was betting against the American dollar to avoid paying U.S. taxes or he has something to hide. As a presidential candidate, he needs to tell the American people which one it is."

Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Job: Chairwoman of the DNC
What She Said About Romney: "Why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that?"
Tax Status: Not released

Wasserman Schultz was asked Monday night by a reporter in Boston whether it's appropriate for her to get on Romney's case when she hasn't made her forms public.

"I'm not running for president. Mitt Romney is running for president," she said. "I file full financial disclosure required under the law."

Under that reasoning, Romney would have a case, too. Romney has broken no laws (that we know of) and has released a year of his tax returns -- far short of the precedent set by his father, sure, but one year more than required.

The DNC says Wasserman Schultz's answer hasn't changed since Monday.

Robert Gibbs
Job: Adviser to Obama, ex-White House press secretary
What He Said About Romney: "The American people deserve to know if he's sheltering this money somewhere, or quite frankly, if he's not paying the taxes he owes, and the only way to do that is to release more tax returns."
Tax Status: Not released

Gibbs didn't respond to an email seeking a response.

Dick Durbin
Job: No. 2 Democrat in the Senate
What He Said About Romney: "It's the least amount of disclosure of any presidential candidate of either political party in the last 36 years."
Tax Status: Released

Durbin releases his returns every year and has authored a bill that would require federal workers, members of Congress and candidates to disclose money held in places considered tax havens.

"Senator Durbin has always insisted on transparency and openness and that's why he discloses more about his personal financial information than is required by the United States Senate," Max Gleischman, Durbin's communications director, said in a statement. "His forms list the exact amount of his assets, his yearly tax returns and a full accounting of his holdings."

Job: Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party

What He Said About Romney: "I challenge him to release additional tax years of tax returns, or the public will never know if he created a shell corporation to avoid taxes."

Tax Status: Not released

Buckley's press secretary, Collin Gately, said presidential candidates should disclose "what conflicts of interest may exist." But he said "the same potential conflicts do not exist with a state party chair."

"Unlike Mitt Romney, Chairman Buckley is not running for President," Gately said in a statement. "Chairman Buckley hasn't released his tax returns but he promises to do so if and when he is a candidate for President of the United States like all candidates in the last 30 years with the exception of Mitt Romney."

Rick Palacio
Job: Chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party
What He Said About Romney: "The American people deserve to know if a man who wants to be president was investing in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying taxes here at home."
Tax Status: Some released, some not released

Palacio released his financial disclosure forms for the five years that he was a congressional staff member, as required. He hasn't released his tax returns since.

"I don't think that there's anyone that has any interest in looking at my tax returns," Palacio said. "I'm a state party chair. I'm not a guy running to be the most powerful person on the planet. It's entirely not even in the same ballgame -- we're not even on the same continent here for comparative purposes."

Martin O'Malley
Job: Governor of Maryland
What He Said About Romney: "He bet against America when he put his money in Swiss bank accounts and tax havens and shelters and also set up a secret company, the shell company in Bermuda, which, by the way, in order to avoid disclosure, he put in his wife's name right before he became governor of Massachusetts."
Tax Status: Released

As part of his campaign for governor, O'Malley and his opponent released their tax returns. They showed that he and his wife were on track to make $1.2 million during his four-year term.

Mick Ireland
Job: Mayor of Aspen
What He Said About Romney: "That Mitt Romney won't talk about that offshore money -- where it is and how much it is -- is pretty telling."
Tax Status: Not released

Ireland told ABC News that his tax returns have never been an issue, and he offered to release them. After finding them, he did -- five years' worth, from 2007 through 2011. They're available here.