Candidates disclose financial assets

Los Angeles Times The Spokesman-Review

WASHINGTON – Congressional financial disclosure reports released Thursday show that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton have assets valued from $10 million to $50 million, with the former president bringing in speaking fees of more than $10 million in just the last year.

The disclosure forms filed by the New York Democrat detail the couple’s remarkable financial transformation since they left the White House in 2001 encumbered by millions of dollars in legal debts.

The reports show that Sen. Clinton is one of the wealthiest members of Congress running for president. She is, however, well behind Republican Mitt Romney, a former venture capitalist and governor of Massachusetts, whose campaign has said he is worth between $190 million and $250 million.

Presidential candidates were required to file financial reports with the Federal Election Commission last month, but some, including Romney, Clinton and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., received extensions. House and Senate members who are running for president must file separate disclosure reports to the FEC and to Congress.

Thursday’s Senate filings showed that almost all of the $24.3 million in assets reported by McCain are held by his wife, Cindy, and their dependent children. In Arizona, Cindy McCain controls an Anheuser-Busch distributorship, said to be among the largest in the nation.

By contrast, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his wife, Michelle, reported assets ranging from more than $450,000 to $1.1 million.

Clinton’s report showed her husband setting a new personal record with his speaking fees, receiving an average of $179,560 for his 57 appearances. A single speech to a London financial forum last September brought the former president $450,000.

He was not alone in earning big money from giving speeches: Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, in his financial disclosure report filed last month, reported earning more than $11 million in speaking fees last year.

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