Rich Congressman, Poor Congressman

Some made millions last year while others struggled to deal with credit card debt and student loans for their kids, according to financial disclosure forms for members of Congress.

In the Senate, some of the newest members were conspicuous in the ranks of the richest, one outcome of the trend of the very wealthy financing their own campaigns.

Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., who spent a record $60 million of his own money to win his seat, holds more than $50 million in shares of Goldman Sachs & Co., his former employer, and $25 million to $50 million in undeveloped land in Ouray, Colo.

Fellow freshman Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., lost millions last year when high tech stocks took a beating on Wall Street, but still took in salary and stock options of $10.8 million from her former job as senior vice president of RealNetworks Inc.

Another millionaire freshman, Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., a department store heir, listed dozens of assets worth a total of $9 million to $38 million.

On the other side were such political veterans as Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who named as his major assets two bank accounts each worth $1,000 to $15,000.

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee that determines funding for thousands of government programs, listed just two assets: a joint credit union account with his wife and a separate credit union account in his wife's name, both worth between $1,000 and $15,000.

All 535 members of Congress are required to submit the annual reports that show outside sources of income, assets, liabilities, travel paid by private interests and speech honoraria. By law, all honoraria for speeches must be donated to charity. In general, income from activities other than investments was limited to $21,195 last year.

This is in addition to the $141,300 that rank-and-file House and Senate members received in salaries last year. Their pay will rise to $145,100 this year. The House speaker's salary was $181,400 last year and is now $186,300. The House and Senate majority and minority leaders were paid $157,000 and are getting $161,200 this year.

With many members maintaining two homes and paying for their children's' education, there was little resistance to the pay raise this year.

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who heads the House Administration Committee that oversees day-to-day operations of the House, reported owing $30,000 to $100,000 on two credit cards. The only asset he reported was a credit union savins account with less than $1,000.

Democratic Sen. Zell Miller took about a $300,000 pay cut when he agreed to be appointed and then was elected to the Senate post vacated by the death of Paul Coverdell. He had to give up $130,000 in salaries as a professor at two universities, as well as $56,250 in consultant fees and more than $100,000 in director's fees from numerous companies.

"I'm poorer, and not a bit wiser," Miller said Thursday.

The party leaders, many who have made a career of politics, generally had modest outside incomes. The disclosures, however, do not usually include a spouse's independent income: The wife of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., for example, is a prominent lobbyist in Washington.

Daschle listed a half share in a home in Aberdeen, S.D., given to him by his mother, worth $50,000 to $100,000, as one of his largest assets. He had several dozen investments to his name during the year, but only one that earned him in the $5,000 to $15,000 range.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., listed four assets each in the $100,000 to $250,000 range: a townhouse in Washington; 75 percent interest in an "opera house" in Plainfield, Ill., which once housed a theater and his father's restaurant; half interest in another property and a mutual fund held with his wife.

Among the very rich were Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., whose assets included three blind trusts, one valued at more than $50 million, and two worth $25 million to $50 million.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has one trust fund set up by his father Joseph P. Kennedy in 1936 that is worth $5 million to $25 million.

Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., owns the Milwaukee Bucks pro basketball team, worth more than $50 million, and a horse-breeding operation and ranch in Wyoming worth between $5 million and $25 million.

On a slightly lower plain, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has assets that include two California vineyards, one in Napa and the other in St. Helena, each valued at $1 million to $5 million.

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., sold his family home in Hillsborough, Calif., for $1 million to $5 million. In a note accompanying his disclosure report, Lantos wrote, "I regret that I sold our house a bit past the peak of the real estate boom in our area but the appreciation on the property was still substantial."

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