Although they haven’t officially been put up yet, Quorum Report has obtained the personal financial disclosure report the U.S. Senate requires for David Dewhurst, Ted Cruz, Tom Leppert and Ricardo Sanchez. According to the Statesman, Dewhurst’s wealth adds up to some $225 million, quite a formidable amount (I suspect that myself and many of my readers could be quite content for 1/100th of that), but not quite the billionaire some had tagged him as.
Tom Leppert clocked in at $12 million (nice, but an order of magnitude less than Dewhurst) and Ted Cruz came in at just under $1 million. Ricardo Sanchez had a net worth of $212,009, but that was probably before his recent house fire.
A little bird was kind enough to provide me a copy of Dewhurst’s report, and I wanted to take note of a few tidbits.
Under income, Dewhurst lists his salary from the State of Texas at $61,119. The Lieutenant Governor’s base salary, as set by the Texas Constitution, is $7,200, though actual pay varies somewhat depending on which days he acts as the acting governor. I find it ironic that if I wanted to be Lieutenant Governor, I’d have to take a significant pay cut. Still, I bet the benefits are pretty awesome…
Dewhurst’s biggest wealth comes in the form of holdings in Falcon Seaboard, the energy and investment company he founded and for which he owns (according to the report) 97.38%. His report lists assets to the tune of over $50 million in Falcon Diversified and $25–50 million in Falcon Seaboard Investment Company, plus over $50 million in a blind trust. He also listed a receivable note from them in the $1–5 million range, as well as a promissory note (i.e. loan) from them in the $5–25 million range. Plus various other Falcon Seaboard-related investments and income.
Next comes Section IIIA, Publicly traded assets and unearned income sources, which lists the companies Dewhurst owns shares of stock in. Among those he has listed as owning shares worth between $100,000–250,000:
Stocks he holds $50,001-100,000 in are:
There are also lesser amounts of stock in Section IIIB, non-publicly traded assets and unearned income sources, which are presumably either in trusts or retirement accounts. (I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant.) I’m not clear if all Mr. Dewhurst’s stock holdings are inside or outside of his blind trust, or some other arrangement. My quick impression is that, blind trust or not, that’s an awful lot of foreign corporations for an American politician to have investments in.
Other tidbits:
That’s not a very blind trust. Indeed, about the trust, the report says “Mr. Dewhurst is the 100% beneficiary of the David Dewhurst Blind Trust which is a grantor trust for tax purposes. The trust is NOT considered a blind trust.” Que?
I’ll be happy to link to Dewhurst’s report (as well as those of the other candidates) when they’re publicly available.