California state legislators still fighting 2016 election battles have approved a bill to force presidential candidates to reveal five years’ worth of tax returns before they can be included on the state’s primary ballot.
The measure was targeted at President Trump, who has refused to make his tax returns public despite a longstanding candidates’ tradition to do so.
“It’s time that California holds this president and all future presidents accountable,” Democratic state senator Mike McGuire said before the Friday-night vote.
Similar legislation has been debated in other states, but has failed over questions of constitutionality.
The bill must be signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown – who has maintained his own policy of tax privacy, refusing to release his personal tax records in 2010 and 2014. He has not taken a public stance on the proposal.
The state senate also voted to move California’s presidential primaries, held in June for years, to March for the 2020 campaign.
The change would upend the primary season, forcing candidates to concentrate on delegate-rich California — and spend less time in the small states, like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, that usually wield outsize influence in the race for the nomination.