Category: Money in Politics

Money in Politics

New Ky. campaign finance data show Clinton’s raised 16 times what Trump’s received

Although Donald Trump has a virtual lock on the GOP nomination for president, he’s at the back of the pack in campaign contributions from Kentuckians.

Trump and Clinton
Trump and Clinton.

Newly released Federal Election Commission figures through May 31 show the New York billionaire has taken in just $43,861 in the 2015-2016 campaign cycle. The Democrats’ likely nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has raked in 16 times as much: $709,377.

Viewed another way, of the 10 White House candidates who’ve raised the most money in the commonwealth, Trump has only received 3% of the GOP donations from Kentuckians. Clinton has gotten considerably more: 54% of Democrats’ total contributions:

Final campaign finance graphic

Still, the Republican Party of Kentucky — led by Brown-Forman executive J. MacCauley Brown — says it isn’t worried about Trump’s weak fundraising. Spokesman Tres Watson told WFPL: “The RPK and Republican National Committee continue to raise significant funds and will have more than enough financial resources to win races up and down the ballot this fall.”

Nationwide, Clinton also has a huge fundraising advantage. She’s received $229.3 million vs. $63.1 million for Trump. That’s burdened him with the worst financial and organizational disadvantage of any major party nominee in recent history, according to The New York Times.

Trump began June with just $1.3 million in cash in the bank vs. more than $42 million for Clinton.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican now defending Continue reading “New Ky. campaign finance data show Clinton’s raised 16 times what Trump’s received” →

Money in Politics

State GOP had $1.5M at end of May, Democrats only $107,000

Federal Election Commission reports for the month of May continue to show a shift of support among some gubernatorial appointees and others to the Republican Party, now that it controls the governor’s office, according to The Courier-Journal.

Here’s the Republican Party’s 61-page FEC report. And here’s the Democrats’ 76-pager.

Mac Brown
Brown

Brown-Forman executive and heir J. McCauley “Mac” Brown leads the Republican Party, and chaired Gov. Bevin’s transition team after he was elected in November.

Brown-Forman itself also filed a 39-page FEC report for May, showing it had $192,000 in the bank for its Nonpartisan Committee for Responsible Government PAC.

Related: Brown-Forman’s history and Louisville presence.

Money in Politics

Rand Paul’s stock portfolio jumped double-digits last year. (Also: he likes silver coins)

By Jim Hopkins
Boulevard Publisher

The value of U.S. Senator Rand Paul‘s stocks, real estate and other investments rose as much as 15% last year, according to a new analysis of his latest annual financial disclosure report.

Official Portrait
Paul

The Kentucky Republican and former White House hopeful reported assets valued at between $670,000 and $2 million, based on the pre-set ranges members of Congress use in their public reports.

On the low side, that’s up 15% from $585,000 in 2014. On the high side, it’s up a smaller 11% from $1.8 million that year, according to the report and the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group in Washington. In 2014, Paul, 53, ranked No. 67 among the wealthiest senators, according to the center, which  hasn’t published 2015 figures for yet. Boulevard arrived at the 2015 numbers in a recent review of his latest report, filed last month.

Paul’s report, as with other members of congress, also includes assets held by his wife Kelley Paul (photo, below) and their children. Most of the family’s investments were in stock and money market funds and real estate, with four valued as high as $250,000. There was one notable exception: a collection of silver coins valued at $15,001 to $50,000. Here’s Paul’s 2015 report, plus his 2014 report.

Paul is an ophthalmologist and U.S. senator since 2011. Earlier this year, he suspended his White House campaign after poor results in the GOP primaries.

His portfolio is dwarfed considerably by Kentucky’s other senator, Mitch McConnell. He and his wife valued their assets at between $9.6 million to $43.2 million last year. In 2014, he ranked 11th among the wealthiest members of the upper house. And Paul’s assets hardly amount to a rounding error compared to the overall richest member of Congress: Republican Rep. Darryl Issa of California, with an estimated $437 million. He built that fortune making car alarms.

Here are the Pauls in 2013, attending Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World party; the magazine included him on its list:

Embed from Getty Images
Money in Politics

Ka-ching! McConnell’s wealth jumped as much as 23% last year — to $43.2 million, new disclosure shows
McConnell,Mitch-012309-18422-jf 0024
McConnell

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and his wife saw the value of their stocks, cash and other investments climb last year, cementing his status as one of the wealthiest U.S. senators, his new financial disclosure report shows. But the source of his riches — via his wife Elaine Chao‘s immigrant father — also demonstrates the fine line the senate majority leader must walk in supporting the GOP’s presumptive White House nominee: Donald Trump.

Senators make the finance reports public each year, valuing investments according to a predetermined range. In 2015, his portfolio was worth $9.6 million to $43.2 million, according to a new Boulevard analysis. On the low side, that was a 2% increase from 2014. On the high side: a whopping 23%.

Mitch McConnell financial disclosures 2004-2015 final

The vast majority of McConnell’s wealth is held by his economist wife, Chao (photo with senator, top), whose father made a shipping trade fortune. Chao, 63, was U.S. labor secretary during the George W. Bush Administration.

Boulevard examined the senator’s latest report, filed May 16, to arrive at his 2015 estimates. The midpoint of their values would be $26.4 million vs. $22.2 million in 2014, according to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan watchdog group in Washington that tracks political campaign finance. The center hasn’t published estimates for 2015 yet.

But in 2014, it ranked McConnell the 11th richest senator. No. 1: Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, with an average net worth of $243 million — a fortune he built investing in telecommunications. Here are the 25 richest.

Tripping over Trump

Chao’s parents fled to Taiwan from mainland China when the Chinese Communists seized power in 1949, according to Wikipedia. In 1961, when she was eight years old, Chao immigrated to the U.S. on a freighter with her mother and two younger sisters. Her father had arrived in New York three years earlier after receiving a scholarship. He later went on to launch shipper Foremost Group.

McConnell has offered tepid support to Trump at best, citing his inflammatory anti-immigration postures. In an interview with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric Tuesday, McConnell said the New York billionaire’s proposals could threaten the GOP’s standing with immigrant voters. “America is changing,” he told Couric, “the Republican Party clearly doesn’t need to write off either Asian or Latino Americans, and that is not a good place to be for long-term competitiveness.”

Related: Here’s McConnell’s  report from last year, plus his 2014 report for comparison. And here’s Sen. Rand Paul’s new report, plus his 2014 report.

Money in Politics

Kentucky’s richest man is laughing all the way to the stable. (But Jack Conway isn’t)
Owner B. Wayne Hughes at Churchill Downs, 4.28.2005.
Hughes

He’s Wayne Hughes Sr. of Lexington, the 82-year-old horse breeder and retired co-founder of Public Storage, just named the state’s wealthiest resident — again — by Forbes. The magazine put his wealth at $2.6 billion, up $300 million from a year ago, after shares in the company soared 30% — far ahead of the basically flat S&P 500 index.

Hughes; his daughter, Tamara Hughes Gustavson, and son Wayne Hughes Jr., own a combined 18.1 million shares in the California-based storage chain started in 1972 — a stake worth $4.6 billion at current market prices. That’s a whopping $1.1 billion more than a year ago on the strength of the stock’s 30% jump.

Conway and Rove_edited-1
Conway and Rove

If Hughes Sr.’s name sounds familiar, it should: He’s been one of the biggest donors to American Crossroads, the conservative political action committee whose targets last year included Jack Conway — the Democratic nominee for Kentucky governor who lost big to Matt Bevin.

American Crossroads was launched six years ago by Republican strategist Karl Rove. Hughes gave the PAC nearly $6.8 million in 2010-14, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group in Washington that tracks campaign finance. The breakdown:

Wayne Hughes donations

In the 2016 election cycle, however, Hughes’ donations have been much more modest. He’s given to just two GOP campaigns: former White House hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida $2,700), and U.S. Rep. Todd Young, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate for Indiana ($5,400).  Hughes has given nothing to Crossroads.

Dividing family money

Forbes credits Hughes with $2.6 billion of his family’s overall $4.6 billion in the magazine’s new Richest Person in Every State List. But Public Storage itself says only that he and his children own it collectively, according to this year’s annual proxy report to stockholders.

Still, no matter how you slice it, Hughes is mega-rich — even if a whole lot of people are still richer. He ranks only No. 293 on the magazine’s list of 400 wealthiest Americans, and just 810 on the world’s list of 1,810 billionaires. (No. 1 on both lists is  Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with $76 billion.)

In fact, Hughes only ties for 293rd richest American; 13 others are just as wealthy, Forbes says. In retirement, he’s Public Storage’s chairman emeritus, and owns Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, with a stable of stallions that have sired championship horses.

Lots of millionaires statewide

Although Forbes says Hughes is Kentucky’s uber-wealthiest, there are plenty of others who are merely rich: The state has an estimated 74,000 households with $1 million or more in stocks and other investible assets, according to the Phoenix Global Wealth Monitor. That’s 4.2% of the state’s 1.7 million households. If Hughes’ fortune was spread across Kentucky, everyone would get $591; more Census facts about the state.

Money in Politics

Massie won’t pay six-figure tribute to congressional campaign fundraisers
Thomas Massie
Massie

Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie is the lone holdout in the state’s Washington delegation, refusing to make six-figure contributions to congressional committees from their own campaign funds and PACs — a system both parties impose.

Massie, who represents the fourth congressional district from Lewis County, likened the dues system to “extortion,” because he said those who give win an edge in better committee assignments, according to a USA Today report this morning. He’s given only $6,000 of an expected $240,000.

Other delegation members denied they were giving under duress. How much the Republican members donated during the 2013-14 campaign cycle to the Republican Congressional Committee, according to The Courier-Journal:

The delegation’s lone Democrat, John Yarmuth of Louisville in the third district, gave $265,000 during the 2014 cycle to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.