How Many Tax Returns Did Kelly Ayotte Give Mitt Romney?

With Sen. Kelly Ayotte on the running-mate radar, Democrats are asking her to divulge how many years of tax returns she gave Mitt Romney in the vetting process.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party raised the questions Wednesday in an effort to keep the heat on Romney, who says he will only release two years worth of returns.

"Senator Ayotte is, from everything we know, a credible candidate for vice presidential selection," said Peter Burling, a Democratic National Committee member from New Hampshire. "She is being thoroughly vetted. Her life story, and, we're quite sure, her tax history, is being thoroughly vetted. We're asking for her to tell us how many years of income tax returns she has handed over to the Romney people as part of that vetting process."

"More importantly," Burling said, "we're trying to establish through her a standard by which we can see how many years of tax returns the Romney people think are important in judging a candidate."

State Rep. Steve Shurtleff, a Democrat from Concord, accused Romney of breaking years of precedent in releasing so little of his tax history.

"The information is relevant to the American people as well," Shurtleff said in a conference call with reporters. "If Senator Ayotte is turning over tax returns to Mitt Romney, why doesn't she believe Mitt Romney doesn't need to be as up front with the American people?" 

Presidential campaigns typically decline to comment about the VP vetting process, and the Romney campaign is no exception here.

Romney has said he will not release additional years because it would provide the opposition fodder for twisting the facts and partisan attacks.

In an interview Tuesday with National Review online, Romney said,

“In the political environment that exists today, the opposition research of the Obama campaign is looking for anything they can use to distract from the failure of the president to reignite our economy. And I’m simply not enthusiastic about giving them hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort, and lie about.”

Burling made it clear that any additional returns released would definitely get examined for public or political advantage.

Burling said greater disclosure would help resolve questions with Romney's "relationship with Bain Capital at any given moment after 1999, it will help us understand his Cayman accounts, his off-shore investment accounts, and it will be an important guide to the voters to understanding exactly what policies he will pursue and how he will pursue them when it comes to off-short taxation."