Since senators are only required to list their personal finances in broad ranges - $250,001 to $500,000, for example - it is difficult to determine a member's precise net worth. But previous surveys have shown that nearly half of the 100 senators are millionairesLink
The Tennessee Republican, a former Nashville heart-lung transplant surgeon whose family founded HCA — The Healthcare Company, one of the nation's largest for-profit hospital chains, reported blind trusts in the $6.5 million to $31 million range. He also said, in the forms required of all legislators every year, that his wife Karyn and three sons each had blind trusts that earned more than $1 million apiece.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., received more than $1.15 million as partial payment for her memoirs. But that sum was overshadowed by the $9.5 million that her husband, former President Bill Clinton earned making speeches around the world for as much as $400,000 a speech.
Daschle's deputy, Democratic whip Harry Reid, D-Nev., listed 160 acres in Bullhead City, Ariz., worth $500,000 to $1 million and Nevada land holdings and mining claims worth $786,000 to $1.675 million. His investments from municipal bonds and other sources, earned him $29,116-$85,050.
As always among the top millionaires in the Senate was Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who has a family trust fund — worth $8 million to $45 million — set up in 1936 when he was four years old by his late father Joseph P. Kennedy.He also has two blind trusts in his name valued at $1,001,001 to $5,015,000 and reported unearned income of $2 million to $13 million from family and blind trusts.
Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said he and his wife have assets worth between $7.7 million and $31.6 million.
The forms do not list the independent assets and earnings of spouses. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential contender, reported no unearned income but his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, heir to the Heinz food fortune, is estimated to be worth more than $500 million.Kerry lists a Dutch painting owned jointly with his wife worth $250,000-$500,000.
The second-ranked Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, also reported that his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, was the major breadwinner. She listed a Vanguard 500 Index fund worth $500,000-$1 million, another fund worth $100,000-$250,000 and a house worth $500,000-$1 million that the couple rents for $5,000-$15,000.
Sen. John Edwards, D.N.C., another presidential candidate, reported a blind trust worth $5 million-$25 million. The former trial lawyer claimed income of $100,000 to $1 million on that trust.
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