Candidates Reveal Riches

Bill Bradley may be trailing Vice President Al Gore in the polls for the Democratic presidential nomination, but when it comes to personal wealth the former New Jersey senator wins by a landslide.

The two Democrats were among several presidential candidates who released personal financial disclosure forms Monday. Bradley reported personal wealth of $5.1 million through corporate board memberships, book deals and speaking fees.

Al Gore, meanwhile, reported an income of $300,000, including his $175,400 salary as vice president. He and his wife, Tipper, reported assets worth at least $1.4 million and liabilities of $600,000, leaving them with a net worth of $800,000. Their 1998 assets include properties the vice president owns in Arlington, Va., and Carthage, Tenn., and various family bank accounts.

Gore reported $20,000 from a mineral lease on his Tennessee property, and royalties of $15,564 from his book, Earth in the Balance. He also reported assets from the estate of his late father, Albert Gore Sr., worth between $266,000 and $565,000. Gore is executor of the estate.

Bradley's $2.6 million income came from a variety of sources. He made 64 speeches last year, collecting $1.6 million. He also made at least $430,000 working as a consultant to financial companies, including Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., J.P. Morgan Services and the Gartner Group. The former basketball star also collected $53,490 from his NBA pension.

Book sales also helped Bradley last year. His New York Times bestseller, Values of The Game, paid him $137,000. Bradley also listed as assets more than $1 million in BankAmerica stock, farmland in Missouri and a summer home, bringing his total net worth to $5.8 million with liabilities of $565,000.

Among the Republicans, only two released their financial information on Monday, Elizabeth Dole and Lamar Alexander.

Dole reported assets of $6.5 million, most of which was derived from stocks in a wide range of companies, including Walt Disney, Microsoft, and Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant which produces Viagra. She also has a $1 million interest in Bob Dole Enterprises, her husband's speechmaking and consulting firm. Dole took a loan against her life insurance policy which made her liabilities at least $250,000.

Dole earned $1.6 million from 43 speeches in 1998, and donated all of that money to the Elizabeth Dole Charitable Foundation.

Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander made more than a $1 million last year from the merger of a child care company that he helped found with a $5,000 investment in 1987. Overall, he earned more than $2 million in 1998.

Alexander also made almost $1 million from serving on corporate boards and hosting a television program on the Discovery Channel.

All the candidates gave money to charity, although Dole and Alexander gave far more than their opponents did. Dole's $1.6 million donation to the charitable foundation of whic she is president was by far tops among presidential hopefuls. Alexander was a distant second, giving $106,000 in donations last year. Bradley gave $28,000 to a Newark church last year. Gore, widely criticized for giving only $353 to charity in 1997, gave away $15,000 in 1998.

Several candidates, including former Vice President Dan Quayle, commentator Patrick Buchanan, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and conservative activist Gary Bauer, requested 45-day extensions for filing their forms. Publisher Steve Forbes, who is reportedly worth about $1 billion, declined to make his disclosure forms public on Monday, but did file them with the Federal Election Commission.