Mitt Romney is not the only political candidate in America who may get a little uncomfortable when the issue of his personal income taxes is raised. There are at least two others -- both running for Congress in the 24th Congressional District, which includes a coastal sliver of Ventura County as well as the counties of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

For months, the campaign of Democratic incumbent Lois Capps has been hammering Republican Abel Maldonado on the issue of his taxes -- specifically, more than $4 million in underpayments alleged by the IRS based on disputed deductions claimed over a period years by Maldonado and his family's farming company.

But this week the tables were turned when it was revealed Capps had to file amended tax returns to reflect the fact that she had failed to report rental income from a staff member who rented living quarters at Capps' home in Santa Barbara. She was cumulatively paid about $41,000 in rent from 2001 to 2005 and did not report the income until this year.

Both campaigns were furuously trying to spin the issue yesterday and today, with Capps pressing her call that Maldonado release his income tax returns for every year he has held public office, as she has done. Today, she posted on her campaign website 465 pages of tax court documents detailing the IRS complaints against Maldonado and his family's company.

Later in the day, the Capps campaign recirculated an email to reporters that had been originally sent from the Maldonado camp to call their attention stories about the Capps tax issue. However, the Capps email included the full stories, noting that Maldonado's campaign had deleted all the references to Maldonado's tax issues from the stories it had circulated.

In the end, all this would appear to be a net plus for Maldonado because it should help him defuse an issue that had been a clear liability. All most voters will take from this is that both candidates have tax issues with the IRS, and are not likely to make a distinction between $42,000 in income dating back a decade for which taxes and penalities have been paid and $4 million in alleged underpayments that are still being contested.