Feinstein Leads Legislative List of Millionaires

Add this to the distinctions between California’s two major candidates for U.S. Senate: Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic incumbent, is far wealthier than Rep. Tom Campbell, her Republican challenger.

Financial disclosure reports made public this week show that Feinstein and her husband, businessman Richard Blum, had at least $27 million in assets at the end of 1999--up at least $5 million from the year before.

Campbell and his wife, Susanne, reported holdings in stocks and a family trust that are worth at least several hundred thousand dollars. Even if the San Jose Republican is a millionaire--which is impossible to tell from the disclosure forms--he is way out of Feinstein’s multimillion-dollar league.

The annual filing of the individual financial reports on Capitol Hill also shows that Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat running for mayor of Los Angeles, owns real estate worth at least $350,000 and is an active stock investor, trading for modest stakes in such companies as Citicorp, Intel, McDonald’s, Yahoo and Motorola.

The reports show that California’s two senators and 52 representatives also benefited smartly from last year’s run-up in the stock and real estate markets, just as many other Americans did.

At least 16 members of the state delegation--and probably more than 20--are millionaires, the records show.

The size of the club is a necessarily conservative estimate because the rules for disclosure are somewhat loose. For instance, lawmakers are allowed to omit reporting their personal home equity. And they are not required to give precise values of their assets, only a range they fit into, such as $1,001 to $15,000.

But it is easy to tell from the forms the sizable wealth of a lawmaker such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, who has served in the House since 1987. Pelosi, in her 21-page report, detailed assets held by her and her husband, Paul, of at least $18.9 million. That ranked her higher than any other California member of the House.

Among the Pelosis’ holdings were properties worth more than $1 million, including a commercial building in San Francisco and two vineyards in Napa County. In addition, they owned a rental property on K Street in downtown Washington--the heart of the capital’s lobbyist district.

Not far behind Pelosi were two first-term Republicans--Rep. Gary G. Miller of Diamond Bar, with assets of at least $14.7 million, and Rep. Doug Ose of Sacramento, with assets of at least $11.2 million. A significant portion of their wealth is also in real estate. Miller, for instance, owned two parcels of vacant land in Monrovia, one of 75 acres and the other of 88-plus acres, each worth at least $5 million and possibly as much as $25 million.

Others holding at least $1 million in assets--alone or with their spouses--were Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Reps. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), Ken Calvert (R-Riverside), Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs), Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles), Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), Pete Stark (D-Hayward), Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Carson), Sam Farr (D-Carmel), and Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Pleasanton). Tauscher was a member of the New York Stock Exchange before she was elected to Congress in 1996.

In addition, records indicate that Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Calvin Dooley (D-Visalia), Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) probably crossed the $1-million threshold.

On the other side of the spectrum were Reps. Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres), who reported no assets that met the disclosure requirement, and James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), whose only reported assets were items from a collection of political memorabilia that netted him $2,501 to $5,000 in a sale.

The records showed in great detail the stock-trading activities of some lawmakers. Sanchez, for instance, executed dozens of equity transactions in 1999, including four sales and four purchases of America Online shares and several rapid-fire trades in such popular stocks Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems.

The records also shed light on the delegation’s traveling habits. Rogan went to Armenia and Italy, for instance, with funding from the Armenian Assembly of America and the National Italian American Foundation. Gary Miller, Tauscher and Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) went to Israel on trips funded by American-Israeli groups.

Records were not available Thursday for Reps. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose).

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Lawmakers’ Assets

Estimated value of assets held on Dec. 31, 1999, by California’s two U.S. senators and the five wealthiest representatives in the state’s 52-member House delegation, based on annual financial disclosure forms:

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U.S. senators In millions Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) $27.0 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) $1.2 5 wealthiest representatives Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) $18.9 Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-Diamond Bar) $14.7 Rep. Doug Ose (R-Sacramento) $11.2 Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) $8.1 Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Pleasanton) $5.3

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Note: Lawmakers describe their assets using a range of values--for example, $1,001 to $15,000. The totals above are based on the lowest figure in each category; thus, the actual totals are higher.

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Sources: Secretary of the Senate, clerk of the House of Representatives Los Angeles Times