Presidential candidates disclose financial worth

By Sonya Ross, Associated Press, May 19, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Al Gore's assets exceeded $1 million last year, including $40,000 from two books and an undisclosed sum from allowing a zinc company to mine in his Tennessee property.

Gore's competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, reported personal wealth of a minimum of $5.1 million, through corporate board memberships, book deals, and speaking fees.

On Gore's personal financial disclosure report, released Monday, he and his wife, Tipper, reported an income of $300,000, including Gore's $175,400 salary as vice president.

Bradley's $2.6 million income came from a variety of sources. He made 64 speeches last year, collecting $1.6 million. He also made at least $430,000 as a consultant to financial companies, including Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., J.P. Morgan Services, and the Gartner Group. The former professional basketball player also collected $53,490 from his NBA pension.

In addition, Bradley's New York Times bestseller, "Values of The Game," paid him $137,000. Bradley also listed as assets more than $1 million in BankAmerica stock, farmland in Missouri, and a summer vacation home in Athens, bringing his net worth to a minimum of $5.8 million, with liabilities of $565,000.

Two Republicans, Elizabeth Dole and Lamar Alexander, released their financial information Monday.

Dole reported assets of $6.5 million, most of it from stocks of a wide range of companies, including Walt Disney, Microsoft, and Pfizer, the firm that produces Viagra, a product pushed in ads by her husband, the former Senate majority leader and GOP presidential nominee, Bob Dole. She also has a $1 million interest in Bob Dole Enterprises, her husband's firm.

She made $1.6 million from speeches, and donated it to the Elizabeth Dole Charitable Foundation.

The former Tennessee governor, Lamar Alexander, made more than $1 million last year from the merger of a child-care company that he helped found with a $5,000 investment in 1987. Overall, he made more than $2 million in 1998, including almost $1 million from serving on corporate boards and hosting a program on the Discovery Channel.

Senator John McCain of Arizona said he had agreed to write a book on his life and family. He donated a $141,627 book advance from Random House to the Arizona Community Foundation. His wife, Cindy, reported more than $1 million worth of assets, including property in Arizona and a beer distributorship.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle, commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, Texas Governor George W. Bush, and the conservative activist Gary Bauer, requested 45-day extensions for filing their forms.

Publisher Steve Forbes, who is reportedly worth about $1 billion, filed his disclosure forms Monday with the Federal Election Commission but declined to make them public. The agency said yesterday that it would release the information in several days.