Tag: Rand Paul

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:

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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

The other cover price for McConnell’s new tell-all memoirs: $325,000 — to start

In “The Long Game,” Republican U.S. senate majority leader Mitch McConnell slams the man he calls “Professor Obama” and needles fellow lawmakers, ABC News says in a new story. It hits bookstores next Tuesday.

McConnell bookMcConnell told the Associated Press a year ago that he was writing the book. But he didn’t say how much he’d get paid. Now, his new financial disclosure report filed last week shows what publisher Penguin forked over: $325,000 — and that’s just to start. He’ll also receive royalty payments: 15% of sales at the retail price of hardcover editions; 7.5% to 10% of sales of paperbacks; and 25% of e-book sales.

This is McConnell’s biggest foray into book publishing. If sales go through the roof, he could earn a bigger advance next time. But as political books go, it’s a long road to match what Simon & Schuster paid Hillary Clinton in 2000 for her memoirs as first lady: a near-record $8 million. (And that’s not counting the rumored $14 million for her years as secretary of state.) In fact, McConnell’s pales alongside a list Boulevard compiled of other high-profile authors going back to 2001.

The 20-page disclosure report covering all of 2015 is full of details about McConnell’s finances and those of his wife, the economist Elaine Chao. Among them, Chao got paid five figures for speeches she gave to the Alliance for Public Awareness in Paris ($50,000), and the Real Estate Roundtable in Washington ($25,000). Chao was U.S. labor secretary in the George W. Bush Administration.

With Chao’s substantial family wealth included, McConnell ranked No. 11 among the senate’s wealthiest members as of 2014, the latest year available from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group.

Related: McConnell’s 2014 financial disclosure report. Also, here’s Republican Rand Paul’s 2015 report, plus his 2014 report.

Money in Politics

McConnell, Paul file annual financial disclosure reports
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McConnell

Republican U.S. senators Mitch McConnell — already one of the chamber’s wealthiest members — and Rand Paul have now filed their mandatory annual financial disclosure reports.

The documents reveal sources of annual income, plus stock and other investments. Both men filed their reports Monday.

Official Portrait
Paul

Here’s McConnell’s, plus his 2014 report for comparison. And here’s Paul’s new report, plus his 2014 report.

Related: Search for more senate disclosure reports.

Money in Politics

In U.S. Senate bid, Gray ran on business credentials. His first financial report lays them out

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray won the Democrats’ nomination for U.S. Senate yesterday by campaigning on his experience helping save the family’s Gray Inc. construction company after his father’s death. He’ll now face Republican Sen. Rand Paul in November — a contest he concedes will be tough.

Jim Gray
Gray

“I have no illusions about it being a challenging race,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader, “but I’ve got the experience and I’ve got the record. That experience is in the private sector, in building a family business.”

In the race to the senate, Gray, 62, joins other well-heeled candidates who’ve run on business bona fides, including Gov. Matt Bevin and White House hopeful Donald Trump. Gray’s first financial disclosure report, filed last month, offers a glimpse at that record.

The April 15 report covers the period extending back to the start of 2015. As with all such reports candidates and office holders must file annually, Gray’s assigns only a range of values for his family’s business, real estate and stock holdings. An individual stock, for example, may be valued at between $15,001 and $50,000 — the value Gray gave to his investment in the biotech giant Amgen. What’s more, it’s a point-in-time view; there’s no way to know the value of any of the assets today, nor whether they’re even still owned.

Still, Gray’s report offers a revealing snapshot of his family’s more big-ticket assets:

  • Gray Inc.: valued between $5 million and $25 million
  • Gray Realty commercial property: $1 million to $5 million
  • Woodford Realty commercial property: $250,000 to $500,000
  • Visual and Antiquity Investments, which consists of contemporary paintings, sculptures, mixed media and rare books: $1 million to $5 million. The report doesn’t say whether this is a private collection or commercial venture

The report also lists stocks and other investment securities, with a combined value between $1.8 million and $4.1 million. The portfolio includes a mix of technology stocks (Apple and Facebook); pharmaceuticals (Bristol-Myers and Merck, in addition to Amgen) and consumer goods (Starbucks and Walt Disney). A partial list:

Gray portfolio medium

Finally, Gray also reported annual wages of $160,000 as mayor, and $125,000 from Gray Inc., where he’s non-executive board chairman.

Related: Watch Gray’s “American Dream” campaign video about saving the family business.

Latest Headlines

Ex-Hut owner loses $42M tax round; Taco tests four new layouts; and murder suspect says KFC meals used to coerce her confession
Taco Bell redesign
One of four new Taco Bell formats.

A news summary focused on big employers.

Gene Bicknell
Gene Bicknell

PIZZA HUT: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed legislation yesterday that could have helped former pizza baron Gene Bickell, who’s contesting a $42 million state tax bill over his 2006 sale of NPC International — America’s biggest Pizza Hut franchiser, with hundreds of restaurants (Topeka Capital-Journal).

TACO BELL is testing four new store designs this summer that give restaurants a more upscale look to better compete with Chipotle and boost dinnertime traffic (USA Today). Here’s the press release. The remodeled stores will be in the Orange County communities of Brea, Newport Beach, Santa Ana and Tustin (Los Angeles Times).

UPS is rolling out a new service where customers can track packages in real time on a map (Fortune). Also, a package handler in Sacramento, Calif., was killed in a fight during a concert Sunday; Thomas Noble, 31, leaves behind a school-age daughter (Sacramento Bee).

Jeff Bezos
Bezos

AMAZON CEO Jeff Bezos yesterday promised more retail stores beyond the single brick-and-mortar outlet in Seattle, as well as new services for the company’s Prime unlimited shipping membership during the company’s annual stockholders meeting (Wall Street Journal).

KFC: A woman in South Africa accused of murdering her employer says a detective coerced her into confessing by buying her KFC, mutton curry and pies (Iol).

In other news, one of Louisville’s biggest law firms — Bingham Greenebaum Doll — has hired former Metro Council President David Tandy as an attorney and lobbyist (Courier-Journal). Lexington Mayor and businessman Jim Gray became the first openly gay major party nominee in Kentucky to seek a U.S. Senate seat when he won yesterday’s Democratic primary; he’ll face Sen. Rand Paul in November (Herald-Leader). Wall Street stocks were flat as investors waited for the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes (MarketWatch).