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Candidates in an exceptionally heated state Senate race traded barbs over each other’s personal tax returns — and the man who threw the first punch emerged bloodied.

Earlier this year, 29-year incumbent state Sen. Marty Connor (D–Brooklyn Heights) was challenged by Daniel Squadron, his well-financed young rival, to release his tax returns.

Connor did — a full five year’s worth, plus lots of financial information not broken out in the returns. Squadron did, too — but only for one year, and without the supplemental information.

Pressed by Connor to match his information release, Squadron refused.

So what can be gleaned from the information provided?

Squadron, 28, is rich, though not by his own hand. He is rightly portrayed as a “trust fund” kid, the son of one of the city’s most powerful lawyers, the late Howard Squadron; he received $180,101 from his father’s estate in 2007, and also earned $25,000 in a book deal with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) and $56,468 as a political consultant, according to his tax filing.

Connor, meanwhile, earned $87,737 a senator and $79,338 from his election law practice in 2007. Connor’s wife, Christine, brought in $113,135 from her job as an attorney in the Brooklyn court system last year.

In a separate memo, Connor disclosed that he lives in two adjoining units in a Pierrepont Street building: he purchased the first apartment in 1994 for $12,500 and the second in 1997 for $50,000.

Squadron says he pays $1,350-per-month for a one-bedroom apartment that he shares in Carroll Gardens with his girlfriend, who works in the mayor’s office of operations. He refused to release any financial information connected to the relationship, including her tax forms and salary as an employee of Mayor Bloomberg, who endorsed Squadron earlier this summer.

The braggadocio over tax returns began when Squadron challenged Connor to release his tax filings. Connor agreed, releasing the last five years, and a separate memo that featured minute details about vacations and outside investments. Squadron ended up only released his return from 2007.

Later, Squadron said he would release his tax forms “every year that he is in public office,” starting now. But the past would remain under wraps.

Connor quipped: “I have one simple question: what is Dan Squadron hiding?”

But Squadron’s campaign fired back, charging that Connor has only released one-sixth of his years in office, while Squadron has released all of his relevant years.

While a cloak of secrecy shrouds Squadron’s financial entanglements, a good deal is known about Connor because of his willingness to disclose a full five years or returns — including 2004, when the IRS penalized him $135,521 for, as Connor had explained it, miscalculating the complicated alternative minimum tax.

Connor’s separate memo also included details about his recent acquisition of .76-acres of swampland in the Adirondacks for $7,000, adjacent to a cabin his wife purchased in 2001 for $45,000.

The Connors went to Puerto Rico in 2007 for four days, and to Rome in 2003 for four days.

It is not known where Squadron vacationed.

©2008 Community Newspaper Group