Kent Conrad Discloses Vacation Home On 2007 Forms

• June 14, 2008

Update: In the post below I noted that the 2006 disclosure form listed Senator Conrad’s wife as only making $1,000. I misread the disclosure form. The form only requires that Conrad’s spouse report any income from a source over $1,000. She reported over $1,000 from her activities as a lobbyist, but didn’t give an exact amount above that.
Earlier today I posted about the $1.07 million vacation home North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad bought with a cushy “VIP” loan from disgraced Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. I also posted about the fact that, despite having purchased this home in 2004, it didn’t show up on Conrad’s 2006 legally-required Senate disclosure forms.
The 2007 forms from Conrad, which were required to be filed by the Senators today, does have this vacation home listed (data obtained via email):

2007 financial disclosures for North Dakota’s two senators:
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Earned income: Conrad made $162,200 in 2007 as a U.S. senator.
Honoraria, all donated to charity: None.
Major assets: North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System, $50,000-$100,000; Checking and savings accounts, $16,000-$55,000; Money market account, $50,000-$100,000; Mutual funds, stocks and other investments, $165,001-670,000.
Major sources of unearned income: Two rental properties. Apartment building in Bismarck, N.D., valued between $250,000-$500,000 listed rental income between $15,000-$50,000. Rental unit in Conrad’s personal residence in Washington, D.C., valued between $500,000-$1,000,000, listed rental income between $5,000-$15,000.
Major liabilities: Mortgage, $50,001-$100,000, on Bismarck, N.D., apartment house.
Gifts: None.
Narrative: Conrad also has a house in Bethany Beach, Del. that is owned by his wife, Lucy Calautti. Calautti is a lobbyist for Major League Baseball.

Conrad is claiming that the Bethany Beach vacation home belongs to his wife, Lucy Calautti. But here’s the problem: In the 2006 disclosure form Lucy Calautti is listed as only having $1,000 in income. How in the world does a woman with only $1,000/year in income afford a $1,000,000 vacation home? For that matter, how does Kent Conrad afford to keep an apartment building in North Dakota, a townhouse in Washington DC and a million-dollar vacation home on a mere $162,000/year salary?
Also, why did Conrad choose to disclose his vacation home this year but not any of the other years from 2004 (when he purchased the vacation home) onward? And why is the loan on the vacation home never listed as a liability on any of these disclosure forms? Is a $1 million mortgage not a liability?
There are a lot of unanswered questions here about Conrad’s personal income, and each time Conrad offers up an explanation (such as saying the vacation home belongs to his wife, or that he didn’t disclose it because he isn’t required to) more questions arise.
And there still remains the question of Conrad taking a “VIP” loan with special considerations granted because he’s a US Senator.
Will North Dakota’s media get to the bottom of this? Or will they simply re-print Conrad’s spin and then bury the story hoping that it fades from the public’s consciousness before the next time Conrad has to run for re-election?

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, North Dakota News, Politics, The Loony Left

http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Nice that the crooks have the disclosure forms nearly worthless isn’t it.

The salient facts are that 1) Conrad saved at least $10,000 due to this special favor and didn’t report it. 2)The CEO of this huge company made a special exception to carry the loan on Conrad’s investment property. 3) He has apparently lied about knowing the guy.

This is absolutely inappropriate for a person in his position.

What’s left to come is for the state’s media to debase themselves covering for him.
Puzzlefeet

Actually at the bottom of each page there is the Exemption test. Check it out.
Pomerdorgrad

Here’s Baker & Hostetler’s year-end 2006 lobbying report, which shows that Major League Baseball paid the lobbying firm $400,000 for a half year of work.
Puzzlefeet

and doesn’t the form have an exemption for property owned soley by a spouse our dependent?
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin

And, really, that’s beside the point of him taking the VIP loan from Mozilo in the first place and then lying about his relationship with Mozilo.

He’s busy doing the people’s business and can’t be expected to recall the details of everyone he meets in the process and anyone who has a problem with it is a dumb nimrod.
There; I just wrote Jack “the Partisan hack”‘s editorial for him.
Hoss

I’m obviously not singling out one party, but the fact that Congressmen are allowed to have spouses and kids that lobby is perhaps one of the most repulsive, non-transparent bits of bullshit in the world.

But, I’m sure they’d all tell you, “no, no, they don’t pester me about __________(fill in blank), or try to sell me on ____________(fill in blank) while we’re at home, etc.” What a load of crap.
Pomerdorgrad

You’ve misread the line in the Senate disclosure report. Calautti is listed as having “income over $1,000.” That’s a ridiculously open-ended figure, but that’s the category she can legitimately check off.
Pomerdorgrad

Conrad, in first story: “I never met Angelo Mozillo.”

Conrad, in second story:

“I called (Mozilo). I said, ‘I’m buying this property. Would you be interested in the mortgage?’, and he said, ‘Yeah. Call these people and we’ll take a look,’” Conrad said.
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin

The Fargo Forum ran the AP story on the front page of their print edition today, but nothing on the their website. Typical.
Puzzlefeet

Doesn’t the form state “over $1000, Rob?
Bat One

It would be interesting to know the details of the purchases of of these rental properties, especially the DE beach house. What was the sales price, the down payment, the structure of the loan and the interest rate?

A $1 million purchase price on a beach rental property should require a 20% downpayment, an $800,000 loan with a monthly payment, PITI of close to $8,000 per month. That in turn would require a gross monthly income of roughly $20,000, with no other substantive payment to account for. Any major deviation would clearly mark this as a “sweetheart” deal.

This is beginning to smell very much like John Kerry’s bogus mortgage loan on “his half of the equity” in the Boston townhome in late 2003 when his campaign was all but broke.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

And that excuses sweetheart deals by Countrywide how?

I mean I understand how you’d want to get favors from a US Senator, but why should he be compromising his integrity?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

The print is kinda hard to read. Where does it exempt him from the ethics rules of not getting special favors because of being a Senator?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Ok, I misread the form on Calautti’s income. Guess Kent’s sugar momma is capable of owning the home.

Nice catch on Kent lying though, Pom.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

I added a correction on Calautti’s income at the top of the post.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

So Conrad doesn’t have to disclose this by the letter of the law.

Why did he suddenly decide to disclose it this year?

And, really, that’s beside the point of him taking the VIP loan from Mozilo in the first place and then lying about his relationship with Mozilo.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Not that I’m aware of Puzzled, but if you know otherwise please indicate so. I’ve already acknowledged that I’m no expert at this rather arcane bit of political law.

But I notice you’re ignoring Conrad’s lie about knowing Mozilo. Typical.
http://www.telavivapartments.net/ tel aviv vacation apartment

why did they closed it ?? even though it is not profitable it must not be closed because of the people who love staying in their vacation apartment .. they are expecting much of it ..
http://telaviv-apartment.com/ apartments of tel aviv

its not all the business will last all through out there is always been a risk but you should know how to handle it its not easy to accept that your business is going down

SayAnythingBlog.com

Kent Conrad Discloses Vacation Home On 2007 Forms

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