John Zaccaro

John Zaccaro's tax returns were an issue in a presidential campaign because his wife was on the ticket. He was a New York property developer, married to Geraldine Ferraro since 1960, and had no public profile until she was chosen as Walter Mondale's running mate in July 1984 - the first woman nominated for national office by a major American party. The scrutiny that followed was directed at him and landed on her. He initially declined to release his tax returns, which produced a fortnight of coverage about what they might contain and forced her into an hour-and-a-half press conference to answer for a business she had no part in. There was a rule underneath the row. Federal disclosure law required candidates to report a spouse's finances, Ferraro had claimed an exemption for his on the ground that their affairs were separate, and the question of whether that exemption applied was a real one rather than an invention of the coverage. There were real findings. He had understated income; he pleaded guilty in 1985 to a misdemeanour over a fraudulent statement in a property deal and was sentenced to community service. There were also questions about tenants and about family associations that were reported heavily and never amounted to charges. The episode is remembered as a study in asymmetry. A male candidate's spouse's finances had never been examined that way, the standard was applied to a woman the first time one reached the ticket, and the campaign spent weeks of its short life on it. Mondale and Ferraro lost forty-nine states, for reasons that had far more to do with Reagan and the economy than with Zaccaro. He returned to his business; she ran twice for the Senate and did not win, and died in 2011.

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