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McCain Liquidates Trust, Romney Gets Extension
Sen. John McCain disposed of a snag in his personal financial disclosure requirements and a GOP presidential rival, Mitt Romney, has put off his disclosure obligations. McCain's wife, Cindy, liquidated the contents of her $500,000-$1 million blind trust and placed the cash in a money market account, an aide said Thursday. The step was necessary to meet requirements of the Office of Government Ethics, which oversees financial disclosures by presidential candidates. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, will not have to disclose details of his financial holdings until mid-August after obtaining an extension Thursday from the ethics office. The 2008 hopefuls faced a Friday deadline to file financial disclosure reports required from all presidential candidates. McCain and Romney had received extensions in May to address the contents of family blind trusts.
Story Continues Below Romney, whose assets are estimated to be between $190 million and $250 million, asked for a new extension because his advisers were compiling data in his blind trust. "All the information needed to complete the report is not yet available," Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said. All presidential candidates were required to file financial disclosures with the Federal Election commission and the Office of Government Ethics by May 15. Romney, McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., received extensions at the time after the ethics office said all three would have to open their blind trusts. Cindy McCain controls most of the wealth in the McCain family. The senator's financial disclosure lists several of her assets as worth more than a $1 million. The reports are not required to list an upper limit for a spouse's assets. Clinton earlier this month disclosed the holdings of the blind trust that she holds with her husband, former President Clinton. The Clintons then liquidated the fund's holdings, estimated at between $5 million and $25 million. Romney is the only candidate so far to dip substantially into his personal wealth to help finance his presidential bid. He lent his campaign $2.3 million in the first three months of the year and he said this week he placed an undisclosed personal amount into the campaign in the April through June period. Romney said the personal money was intended to pay for the $4 million he has spent on early advertising to build his name recognition, particularly in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Romney also raised $20 million in contributions in the first three months of the year. Campaigning Thursday in Coraopolis, Pa., Romney said the Senate's failure to pass the president's immigration plan was a "victory for the people." "People-one, Washington politicians-zero," Romney told reporters. McCain rejected the idea he would drop out of the race because of poor fundraising and a weak showing in public opinion polls. "It would be nuts," McCain told reporters in the Capitol. "I don't know why I would even remotely consider such a thing in the month of June or July."
© 2007 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
2008 Presidential Race Inside Cover Stories
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