Presidential Hopefuls are Loaded

Here's an interesting piece I found on CNN that gives details into the finances of some of the top U.S. presidential candidates. These reports were released by the Federal Election Commission (though several candidates received extensions including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Tommy Thompson and Jim Gilmore.) I'll cover them one-by-one.

Here's the scoop on Rudy Giuliani:

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani reported a whopping $16.1 million in earned income over the past 16 months, most of it in speaking fees, according to financial documents filed Wednesday. He typically charged $100,000 per speaking engagement and as much as $200,000 on occasion. He reported $13 million to $45 million in assets.

Holy cow! $100k for a speech? Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Now for John Edwards:

Democratic hopeful John Edwards reported earned income of $1.25 million, the biggest single source of which was a hedge fund that employed him part time. He and his wife, Elizabeth, reported $29.5 million in assets, including millions invested in the hedge fund -- the Fortress Investment Group. Edwards received about $395,000 in paid speeches -- most of them at colleges -- and was paid $40,000 salary for work at the University of North Carolina Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. Edwards also received $333,334 in royalties for his book "Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives." The money was donated to charity.

I found this particularly interesting:

Edwards, who has made fighting poverty a signature element of his campaign, said his work for a fund that generally caters to the wealthiest of investors was designed to educate him about the way financial markets operate. Fortress paid Edwards $479,512 for his consulting services.

He doesn't know how financial markets work and he wants to be president? Either this guy is not qualified to run the economy or he's lying and just wants to make some big bucks (which I'm not against, by the way, but for goodness sake, please be upfront about it.)

Next is Barak Obama:

Sen. Barack Obama's report showed a surge of interest in his writings as he drew closer to a presidential bid, earning more than a half-million dollars in 2006 in royalties for one book and an advance for another. The Illinois Democrat received $572,490 for the books -- his best-selling memoir, "Dreams of My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," an account of his political journey. Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported assets ranging from $457,000 to $1.14 million -- far more modest than most of the other leading presidential candidates.

Obviously, Obama is younger than most, if not all the rest, so he's got some time to up his net worth -- and making $572k for a couple books is a great way to juice up his holdings. He's still above average in net worth, but is much closer to most of us than the rest of the gang.

Finally, we have Bill Richardson:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate who has called for a dramatic reduction in the use of fossil fuels, reported holding $250,000 to $500,000 in stock options from Valero Energy Corp. for serving on the company's board of directors from March 2001 to June 2002. Richardson also held $100,000 to $250,000 in Valero common stock.

Not much here -- other than his investments don't necessarily hold with his personal convictions. That's not totally a bad thing though as his money isn't likely making a difference in their stock price etc., so I'd give him a pass on this (though the media wants to make a big deal out of it.)

I can't wait to see the incomes/net worths of Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain. Should be some juicy stuff there!

Comments

[Jesse]

Mitt Romney will leave everyone in the dust. I've read in several places it's estimated he's worth about half a billion dollars. Being a (successful) turnaround investor can do that for a person apparently.

[Edmund]

Hedge funds make a lot of money.

Well, the successful ones. Good Sharpe ratios, but high kurtosis as well.

[KB]

I think that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have forever changed the landscape in terms of wealthy men in the White House. Both Bush and Cheney are fabulously weathlty, far beyond those who hope to replace them. Both are heavily invested in defense and energy companies.

While Bill Richardson and Mitt Romney have a few bucks tucked away, to be sure, if asked, they will simply point to the current occupants of the White House, look into the camera and say "I wished I had the money that Bush or Cheney has".

[FMF]

Uhhhh, not really.

A simple Google search for "President Bush net worth" shows that he's worth about $20 million (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051501638.html ).
Then, another quick search yields this info:

Evan Bayh (D-Indiana)
Estimated net worth: $1,954,000 to $6,360,000

Hillary Clinton (D-New York)
Estimated net worth: $10,045,000 to $50,235,000

John Kerry (D-Massachusetts)
Estimated net worth: $158,691,000 to at least $241,590,000

George Allen (R-Virginia)
Estimated net worth: $1,828,000to at least $3,845,000

Sam Brownback (R-Kansas)
Estimated net worth: $2,313,000 to $9,095,000

Bill Frist (R-Tennessee)
Estimated net worth: $12,660,000 to at least $46,715,000

Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)
Estimated net worth: $2,183,000 to $7,495,000

John McCain (R-Arizona)
Estimated net worth: $13,875,000 to at least $23,085,000

There are additional millionaires in the rest of the 2008 field, including former Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina), who doesn't have to fill out these reports anymore, but had an estimated net worth between $12.8 million and $60 million when he was in office.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/situation.room/blog/archive/2006_06_11_index.html

It always pays to check the facts before you leave a comment.

[Marcus]

I wonder how much of John Kerry's net worth is unrelated to his wife. It seems anytime his wealth is discussed she is always mentioned.

[ST]

I can't help but laugh about the spread in the net worth estimates of the prez candidates.

"My own net worth is about $500k, give or take three million." :-)

[Cathy]

I think Bill Clinton gets a million per speaking engagement (or at least has, on occasion).

[Jason]

Leaving out Ron Paul, as always, I see.