Harry Reid’s Riches Are A Campaign Issue
Oct 16, 2010 3 Comments ›› Grizz
Politico
Indeed, Reid’s personal wealth, estimated in 2009 at $3.1 million to $6.7 million, has been built largely on his investments in land and real estate — including several mining properties he owns in and around his hometown of Searchlight, Nev. As Southern Nevada boomed over the past two decades, Reid’s personal wealth grew too.
When he first ran for the Senate in 1986, Reid reported $1.8 million in assets. But for about two decades, it’s remained at a similar range as it is today.
Now in the middle of a tough reelection in Nevada, Reid’s personal wealth has suddenly become a political issue after his GOP opponent, Sharron Angle, attacked him for it in Thursday night’s much-anticipated debate.
“You came from Searchlight to the Senate with very little,” Angle said, in one of the debate’s tensest moments. “Now you’re one of the richest men in the U.S. Senate. And on behalf of Nevada taxpayers, I’d like to know — we’d like to know — how did you become so wealthy on a government payroll?”
A perplexed Reid said Angle’s comment was “really kind of a low-blow.”
“I think most everyone knows I was a very successful lawyer. I did a very good job in investing. I have been on a fixed income since I went to Washington,” Reid said. “I’ve lived off of what I made in the private sector. I put my five kids through 100 semesters of school, and I paid for every penny of it. So her suggestion that I made money being a senator is simply false, and I’m really disappointed that she would suggest that.”
As Senate majority leader, Reid’s annual income is $193,400 — which is about $20,000 more than senators who don’t hold leadership positions. But the bulk of his income has come from his investments, and his net personal wealth has fluctuated marginally over the past decade, according to his personal financial disclosures.
In 1996, for example, Reid’s assets ranged from $2.6 million to $5.7 million — but in 2008, his net worth was estimated at $2.9 million to $5.9 million.
In 2008, Reid was listed as the 114th richest member of Congress and 32nd in the Senate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Reid and his wife, Landra, now own a condo at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, which is valued at $1 million. He paid $750,000 cash for the property in 2001, according to property assessment records.
That, too, has become an issue in the campaign.
“I live in a middle-class neighborhood in Reno, Nev.,” Angle said at the onset of Thursday’s debate. “Sen. Reid lives in the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C.”
Angle reported to the Senate earlier this year that she and her husband, Ted, hold assets ranging from $10,000 to $150,000, mainly in mutual funds.
This isn’t the first time Reid’s assets have become a political issue. In 2006, Reid — then Senate minority leader — came under fire after The Associated Press reported that he collected a $1.1 million profit from a 2004 Las Vegas land sale, which the report said he didn’t fully disclose to the Senate. Reid pushed back hard on the report, but later amended his financial disclosures to detail the sale.
After Thursday night’s debate, Angle’s campaign continued to attack Reid’s wealth. Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for Angle, said Friday that Reid’s claim that he lives on a “fixed income” is “not only a lie. … It’s delusional, and insulting to those who really do live on a fixed income.”
But Reid’s campaign fired back Friday, accusing Angle of taking hypocritical positions by attacking government programs while benefiting financially from them after her husband worked at the Bureau of Land Management for more than three decades.
“Instead of lying pathologically about Sen. Reid’s record, Sharron Angle needs to explain to Nevadans the extreme hypocrisy of her crusade against health care reform and her agenda to eliminate Social Security — all the while living off a government pension and receiving quality government-financed health care for the rest of her life,” said Kelly Steele, spokesman for Reid’s campaign.
