Clinton tops Senate in wealth increase

Publication: Sacramento Bee

McClatchy Washington Bureau
May 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - Propelled by her husband's post-White House earnings, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's net worth soared from red ink to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb among members of Congress who arrived without assets, a watchdog group said Tuesday.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, reported a $27.6 million surge in his and his wife's average worth from 1995 to 2006. Their worth rose over that 11-year period from an inflation-adjusted average of $8.9 million to $36.4 million, the ninth-biggest rise in Congress, the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation reported.

The Sunlight Foundation posted on its Web site the first-ever comparison of the 535 House and Senate members' latest available net worth with their earlier disclosure statements. The forms don't require any explanation for shifts of fortune.

Many members of Congress have added significantly to their wealth while in office. But because lawmakers are allowed to list their assets in wide ranges and exclude homes that can be worth millions of dollars, the foundation acknowledged that the data may create misimpressions.

Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama's average net worth rose from $328,442 in 2004, when he was elected to the Senate, to $799,006 in 2006. But counting Obama's and his wife Michelle's pricey Chicago home, he almost assuredly has joined the Senate's "Millionaire's Club."

"The disclosure system is so flawed that you can't tell whether a member of Congress is a multimillionaire or in debt," said Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation.