Debts, horseracing purses among items disclosed by US lawmakers

United States Representative Alcee Hastings is still paying for his impeachment and conviction as a federal judge, a case that began three decades ago.

Hastings, a Florida Democrat, owes between $2.1 million and $7.4 million in legal fees incurred between 1981 and 1989, according to his personal financial disclosure statement released yesterday.

The annual financial disclosure reports allow lawmakers to list their income and liabilities in broad ranges, making it impossible to determine their exact amounts. The documents do provide a glimpse into the range of wealth among members of Congress, the ways some supplement their government checks, and debts that some incur.

 

Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, reported a more than $75 million business line of credit, all secured with personal funds. Issa also had assets valued at more than $200 million.

Freshman Republican Representative Rick Berg of North Dakota reported business and real estate loans of between $1.5 million and $6 million.

Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican elected last year, reported owing $100,000 to $250,000 in student loans. Representative John Carter, a Texas Republican, reported debts of between $230,004 and $600,000, including a bank loan incurred more than 25 years ago, student loans from around 1998, and credit card debts from around 1990.

OTHER DEBTS
Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, carried loans of between $1 million and $5 million from her 2000 campaign. Laura Richardson, a California Democrat, reported owing between $150,000 and $350,000 in legal fees. The House Ethics Committee last year dismissed allegations that she got special treatment from Washington Mutual in regards to some property in Sacramento.

Hastings, 74, was named as a US District Court judge in 1979 in Florida and was indicted two years later for conspiring to solicit bribes. Acquitted by a jury in 1983, he was impeached by the House in 1988 and convicted and removed from office by the Senate the following year. Hastings appealed to the US Supreme Court in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the verdict. He won his House seat in 1992.

TRACK WINNER
The reports disclose ways House members and senators, who have base salaries of $174,000, supplement their income. Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democrat, collected purses between $56,007 and $177,500 from his racehorses, including one named Unanimous Consent.

Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, won $24,835.33 in his state’s lottery. Julie Reichert, wife of Representative Dave Reichert, a Washington state Republican, won between $201 and $1,000 at a casino. Representative Paul Tonko, a New York Democrat, won $2,052 in gift cards at a raffle benefitting a regional food bank in his home state.

Senator Scott Brown, the Massachusetts Republican who won the late Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy’s seat in a special election last year, reported receiving a $700,000 book advance for his autobiography published earlier this year.

Representative Mary Bono Mack, a California Republican who was married to the late singer and House member Sonny Bono, reported music royalties of between $100,000 and $1 million. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, received $10,381 in music and book royalties.

The reports also offer insight into the lawmakers’ stock investments, some of which are related to the work they do on Capitol Hill. Some members of the House Financial Services Committee, which last year crafted the most extensive financial regulations since the Great Depression, held stock in institutions that come under the panel’s oversight.

Michigan Democrat Gary Peters held between $15,000 and $50,000 in American International Group (AIG), while Illinois Republican Robert Dold, a freshman, held between $1,000 and $15,000 of stock in the troubled insurer that received $67.8 billion in funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp).

Representative Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, bought between $1,000 and $15,000 of BP Plc stock on February 1, and sold it on April 27, one week after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded. Representative Tom Petri, a Wisconsin Republican, reported income of between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from his holdings in Lloyd’s of London.

RANGEL’S VILLA
Representative Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, reported selling his Punta Cana Beach Villa in December for between $250,000 and $500,000. Rangel was censured last year by the House for ethics violations, including failing to pay taxes on money he earned from renting out the villa in the Dominican Republic. As part of its censure resolution, the House voted to require him to pay those taxes.

Representative John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and a leader in the 1960s civil rights movement, was one of the few lawmakers who reported a large number of paid trips.

Lewis divulged that he took 18 trips last year, including to an NAACP meeting in St Louis. He also went on a trip to Orlando, Florida, paid for by the International Association of Firefighters; and made a visit, paid by Major League Baseball, to the annual Civil Rights Game in Cincinnati that pitted the hometown Reds against the St Louis Cardinals.