Although candidates may not admit it, political campaigns on any level are based on money, and in a candidate field of millionaires, the size of the candidate’s stack sometimes supplants the quality of his ideas.

No one understands this more than Democratic gubernatorial nominee Attorney General Thomas Reilly, who has made public disclosure of personal finances a point of contention early on in the gubernatorial race for the Democratic nomination.

In Friday’s debate with rival candidates Deval Patrick and Chris Gabrieli, Reilly talked politics, but took time to get personal with the other Democratic contenders. Standing firm on his stance to lower the state income tax to five percent from its current 5.3 percent rate, Reilly also demanded that fellow Democratic candidates offer greater personal financial disclosure.

In January, Reilly, who has served as attorney general since 1999, publicly released his federal and state income tax returns from the past three years. Reilly and his wife, a retired school teacher, Ruth, reported a total income of $158,248 and paid $29,449 in federal taxes, according to their joint statement. They reported $141,848 in taxable income for the state of Massachusetts, and they paid $5,831, or 5.3 percent in taxes.

“I call upon both Deval and Chris to release their tax returns,” Reilly said, referring to Deval Patrick and Chris Gabrieli, said during the debate. “Dick Cheney and George Bush both released [tax returns].”

Until Gov. Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey withheld their tax returns, it was considered tradition for gubernatiorial candidates to be forthright about their finances, Reilly said. “We shouldn’t be following the lead of Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey,” he added.

Reilly has based much of his campaign around what his campaign website calls a “story of Massachusetts.” In a NECN NewsNight interview on April 5, Reilly told his personal story of growing up in Springfield as the child of two Irish immigrants. Reilly recalled his father and two brothers dying when he was still a child, saying that “I lived in a community where people took care of each other.”

One of the race’s non-millionaires, Reilly was the first in his family to attend college, and Reilly said he had a hard time getting a start out of high school.

“Today I see kids that struggle, and I know they’re having a hard time,” Reilly said in the NewsNight interview. “And I know that they deserve the same chances that I had … You need that chance every kid does.”

An April 20 editorial, The Boston Globe asserted that the Reilly campaign has been portrayed as “a race pitting Attorney General Tom Reilly against the millionaires.” Reilly rents an apartment in Watertown, owns a small vacation home in Chatham assessed at $484,900 that his wife inherited and sent his children to public school. “It would be nice to have more ‘ordinary’ people as candidates,” the editorial continued. “But personal wealth shouldn’t be either disqualifying or an unfair advantage.”

During the campaign, Reilly and Patrick have squared off about Patrick’s Ameriquest financial holdings, something Reilly brought up during the televised debate. In a post-debate statement released by Patrick’s campaign, press secretary Libby DeVecchi, wrote, “For several months, Tom Reilly has refused to meet Deval in a debate such as this to talk about the real issues that people care about. Today, the first time a debate occurs, Tom Reilly focuses on worn attack lines.”

In a prepared statement, Reilly said the candidates should publicly release their tax returns as a matter of being open and frank with the voters.

“People deserve to know where our money comes from, what our financial interests are and what potential conflicts we may have as governor,” the statement read.

However, Reilly’s multiple selections for running mates have each failed to match his standards of disclosure. Reilly has faced criticism following his unsuccessful February selection of running mate Rep. Marie St. Fleur (D-Boston), whose one-day run with Reilly ended after reports of unpaid taxes and loans forced her drop out, according to a Feb. 3 Boston Globe article.

Reilly has received the endorsement of 15 mayors around Massachusetts, according to a March 28 campaign press release. In that release, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino was quoted as calling Reilly a “great leader.”

“Tom Reilly takes on the hard fights for ordinary people and works hard each and every day for the people of Massachusetts,” Menino continued in the press release.

Reilly remains confident that the Democrats have a legitimate shot at the governor’s position following the current Republican administration.

“This is not a tough act to follow,” he said, referring to the Romney administration.