Wife's Fortune, Connections Boost McCain

Cindy McCain's Assets From Beer Distributor Are In Her Name, But Have Given Candidate A Wealthy Lifestyle

(AP) 
Hensley is a prominent presence in Phoenix. Its sports sponsorships include the Phoenix International Raceway, and its foundation gives tens of thousands of dollars to local causes each year. McCain turns over most of his book and speaking proceeds to Hensley's foundation, which distributes them to charities. Hensley's philanthropy includes supporting a flatbed-truck service that transports intoxicated drivers and their vehicles.

Cindy McCain is Hensley's chairwoman and holds at least a 20 percent stake in it, according to Arizona corporate records. She works mostly on strategic planning and corporate vision, said Hensley spokesman Douglas Yonko. The company is family owned, but Hensley won't say whether Cindy McCain is a majority shareholder.

Within the industry, as heiress to her father, she is widely assumed to own a majority of the company. If so, that would make her net worth at least $100 million, if industry estimates of Hensley's value are accurate.

Hensley distributes only Anheuser-Busch products, which makes it and the St. Louis-based brewer heavily dependent on each other, said Joe Thompson, president of the Independent Beverage Group, a research and consulting firm.

"It is a very, very competitive business, and Phoenix is a very, very competitive market," Thompson said. Nationally, some Anheuser-Busch wholesalers are looking to end exclusive arrangements with the brewer, but Thompson does not believe Hensley is among them: "They've been very loyal to Anheuser-Busch, and Anheuser-Busch has been very loyal to them."

Hensley's Web site includes links to Anheuser-Busch promotions and to the National Beer Wholesalers Association, a powerful trade group. Hensley's spokesman, Yonko, is the lobby's Arizona director, and Hensley executives gave enough to the group's political action committee to make its company honor roll.

The PAC doles out millions of dollars to Democratic and Republican congressional candidates each election. John McCain's campaigns have received at least $26,000 from it over the years. An informal poll on the trade group's Web site asks visitors which presidential candidate they would most like to have a beer with (Democrat Barack Obama was way ahead in late March with 45 percent, McCain was second, with 23 percent).

The association's priorities include drunken-driving laws; trucking and labor regulations; estate, fuel and alcoholic-beverage taxes; beer labeling and advertising rules; recycling programs and campaign finance restrictions. Many of those issues come under the purview of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which McCain chaired from 1997-2001 and again from 2003-2005.

McCain has long said he refrains from voting on beer industry-specific issues. Following that policy, McCain voted "present" when the Senate voted in March 1998 to withhold state highway funding from states that failed to adopt a .08 blood-alcohol standard for drunken driving.

Two years later, McCain voted against the fiscal 2001 transportation appropriations bill, which set a national .08 standard. The National Beer Wholesalers Association opposed the legislation and told its members it had at least succeeded in "delaying and diluting the final version." McCain voted against the bill because he objected to "pork-barrel spending," Hazelbaker said.

On some high-profile issues, McCain disagrees with his wife's industry.

Beer wholesalers and other businesses tried unsuccessfully to block a campaign finance law that McCain co-sponsored banning corporate contributions to the national Democratic and Republican parties. On another top business issue, the estate tax, McCain has supported cuts but opposes permanent repeal. Beer wholesalers contend a repeal would help save family businesses like Hensley.

Cindy McCain became chairwoman of Hensley in 2000 around the time of her father's death. She previously served as a vice president and director of the company.

"She is regarded as a serious businesswoman," said Art Pearce, a Hensley competitor in Phoenix until he sold his family's Coors beer distributorship in 2004. Pearce said he worked with Cindy McCain on tax and recycling issues in Arizona. "We were major competitors, but she was open-minded and listened to issues, and I couldn't have asked for anybody better to deal with, really."

Pearce said she scaled back her involvement in state beer issues after John McCain was elected to Congress.

Still, Cindy McCain remained involved in Hensley as her husband began his presidential campaign. A company photo last year shows her posing with a shovel at a groundbreaking ceremony for a distribution facility in Chandler, Ariz. Hensley declined to say whether she will step down if she becomes first lady.

Cindy McCain's assets go beyond the family beer company.

She and her children own a minority stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks. The professional baseball team's chief executive, Jeff Moorad, and former majority owner Jerry Colangelo are McCain fundraisers. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, a former Diamondback player, appeared in a New Hampshire campaign advertisement for McCain.

Assets held by Cindy McCain alone or with her children also include Anheuser-Busch stock; two condominiums along the California coast worth a total of at least $3 million and Arizona investments in rental medical offices and a parking lot, according to property records and John McCain's latest financial disclosure reports.

John McCain has seven ch1ildren: two stepsons and a daughter from his first marriage, and two sons, a daughter and an adopted daughter from his second. McCain's financial disclosure reports do not identify the children who share assets with Cindy McCain.

Arizona is a community property state, so McCain may share possessions his wife didn't inherit, such as their primary home. Cindy McCain, through a family trust, sold the family mansion in Phoenix for $3.2 million and bought a $4.6 million Phoenix condo in 2006. The couple may also jointly own a condo in Arlington, Va., assessed at $847,800. McCain's campaign and Hensley declined to say whether the couple has communal property.

John McCain held a barbecue recently for reporters at a two-story cabin near Sedona, Ariz., that sits on 15 acres owned by his wife's family trust and a real estate partnership in her name. The property includes four single-family homes and is worth nearly $1.8 million.

It's clear the rustic retreat is considered family property. The cabin features artwork by the McCain children and editorial cartoons depicting McCain. A doormat reads: "GEEZER (formerly known as `Stud Muffin') Lives Here." The amenities include a soda fountain and, of course, a Budweiser beer tap.

[homespunlady]

Just what this nation needs.

ANOTHER out of touch IVORY TOWER ELITE who MARRIED into wealth this time instead of being born into it AKA King George.

Sounds a bit like a GIGOLO with the wife "owning" pretty much all of it and Gigolo McSame just enjoying the FRUITS and Luxuries of it all.

Then is all this political stuff McCain has been doing the past-time of a BORED KEPT MAN?

Since he''s stated he doesn''t know that much about economy maybe the NEOCONS should have considered his INHERITED "businesswoman" wife for President rather than him.

In the meantime, our "fearless leaders" are BAILING OUT the CONMEN banks and "foreclosure investors" ($7,000 from Uncle Sam to buy a foreclosed house??) to sell them to a bigger sucker.
Then they tell the TOO TRUSTING, gullible family that just got laid off to go DIE SOMEWHERE!!

WHY did they get laid off??
Well, it was due to the "fund investors" OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOW BAILING OUT insisting on stripping the company they DID WORK FOR so the EXECUTIVES could get BIGGER BONUSES of course!

WHAT IRONY!!!

[homespunlady]

Just what this nation needs.

ANOTHER out of touch IVORY TOWER ELITE who MARRIED into wealth this time instead of being born into it AKA King George.

Sounds a bit like a GIGOLO with the wife "owning" pretty much all of it and Gigolo McSame just enjoying the FRUITS and Luxuries of it all.

Then is all this political stuff McCain has been doing the past-time of a BORED KEPT MAN?

Since he''s stated he doesn''t know that much about economy maybe the NEOCONS should have considered his INHERITED "businesswoman" wife for President rather than him.

In the meantime, our "fearless leaders" are BAILING OUT the CONMEN banks and "foreclosure investors" ($7,000 from Uncle Sam to buy a foreclosed house??) to sell them to a bigger sucker.
Then they tell the TOO TRUSTING, gullible family that just got laid off to go DIE SOMEWHERE!!

WHY did they get laid off??
Well, it was due to the "fund investors" OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOW BAILING OUT insisting on stripping the company they DID WORK FOR so the EXECUTIVES could get BIGGER BONUSES of course!

WHAT IRONY!!!

[homespunlady]

Just what this nation needs.

ANOTHER out of touch IVORY TOWER ELITE who MARRIED into wealth this time instead of being born into it AKA King George.

Sounds a bit like a GIGOLO with the wife "owning" pretty much all of it and Gigolo McSame just enjoying the FRUITS and Luxuries of it all.

Then is all this political stuff McCain has been doing the past-time of a BORED KEPT MAN?

Since he''s stated he doesn''t know that much about economy maybe the NEOCONS should have considered his INHERITED "businesswoman" wife for President rather than him.

In the meantime, our "fearless leaders" are BAILING OUT the CONMEN banks and "foreclosure investors" ($7,000 from Uncle Sam to buy a foreclosed house??) to sell them to a bigger sucker.
Then they tell the TOO TRUSTING, gullible family that just got laid off to go DIE SOMEWHERE!!

WHY did they get laid off??
Well, it was due to the "fund investors" OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOW BAILING OUT insisting on stripping the company they DID WORK FOR so the EXECUTIVES could get BIGGER BONUSES of course!

WHAT IRONY!!!

[flajoe1]

neoconism

First I did not say I%u2019m going to vote for McCain I just haven%u2019t ruled it out yet. Do you truly believe it is John McCain%u2019s goal if elected is to destroy the middle class? Do republicans truly believe that Clinton or Obama%u2019s goal is to destroy the country?

I%u2019m glad George Washington isn%u2019t running today, I understand he had the backing of the Tobacco industry. :-) and he grew Hemp! Imagine what Karl Rove could have done with that info.

[element51]

What happened to the comments on this story?

[ejcii1960]

Wife''s Fortune, Connections Boost McCain

Did you do a story like this on Kerry and his wife. I''m sure I must have missed the story on Jessie Jackson''s son and the Anheuser-Busch distributor he owns in Chicago (and how he got it)

[ejcii1960]

Wife''s Fortune, Connections Boost McCain

Did you do a story like this on Kerry and his wife. I''m sure I must have missed the story on Jessie Jackson''s son and the Anheuser-Busch distributor he owns in Chicago (and how he got it)

[ejcii1960]

Wife''s Fortune, Connections Boost McCain

Did you do a story like this on Kerry and his wife. I''m sure I must have missed the story on Jessie Jackson''s son and the Anheuser-Busch distributor he owns in Chicago (and how he got it)

[idnnsg]

It appears that CBS wiped out all the comments for this story!

[termtex01]

"But a prenuptial agreement has kept most assets in his wife''s name. "

Unlike John Heinz, uh, I mean Kerry.

[flajoe1]

neoconism

First I did not say I%u2019m going to vote for McCain I just haven%u2019t ruled it out yet. Do you truly believe it is John McCain%u2019s goal if elected is to destroy the middle class? Do republicans truly believe that Clinton or Obama%u2019s goal is to destroy the country?

I%u2019m glad George Washington isn%u2019t running today, I understand he had the backing of the Tobacco industry. :-) and he grew Hemp! Imagine what Karl Rove could have done with that info.

[bgwinnett]

John kerry did the same twice I recall, marrying wealthy heiress''s that is.

[flajoe1]

neoconism

First I did not say I%u2019m going to vote for McCain I just haven%u2019t ruled it out yet. Do you truly believe it is John McCain%u2019s goal if elected is to destroy the middle class? Do republicans truly believe that Clinton or Obama%u2019s goal is to destroy the country?

I''m glad George Washington isn%u2019t running today, I understand he had the backing of the Tobacco industry. :-) and he grew Hemp! Imagine what Karl Rove could of done with that info.

[neobrian-2009]

Mc Cant is Smarter than I thought
And Everybody thought she was All about a'' Trophy Rack''

[flajoe1]

neoconism

First I did not say I%u2019m going to vote for McCain I just haven%u2019t ruled it out yet. Do you truly believe it is John McCain%u2019s goal if elected is to destroy the middle class? Do republicans truly believe that Clinton or Obama%u2019s goal is to destroy the country?

I''m glad George Washington isn%u2019t running today, I understand he had the backing of the Tobacco industry. :-) and he grew Hemp! Imagine what Karl Rove could of done with that info.

[flajoe1]

neoconism

First I did not say I%u2019m going to vote for McCain I just haven%u2019t ruled it out yet. Do you truly believe it is John McCain%u2019s goal if elected is to destroy the middle class? Do republicans truly believe that Clinton or Obama%u2019s goal is to destroy the country?

Thank god George Washington isn%u2019t running today, I understand he had the backing of the Tobacco industry. :-) and he grew Hemp! Imagine what Karl Rove could of done with that info.

[valentin73]

Why is Mrs McCain in every picture posing with the man she loves? Does she have anything better to do? What does she have to do with politics?

Keep the social butterfly, rich heiress, and McCain''s better half OUT OF THE PICTURE!!!

When he wins The White House, should he, Then the lady can host parties , plan events, pose for pretty pictures..........you get the point.

[noloyalisti]

This guy is like Bushoccio on sterorids. He is the reincarnation of Barry Goldwater, a reactionary angry madman. He wants endless war, in fact he wishes we were still napalming innocent civilians in Vietnam.

We better wake up and marginalize this senile, brain damaged wacko ASAP.

[valentin73]

Why is Mrs McCain in every picture posing with the man she loves? Does she have anything better to do? What does she have to do with politics?

Keep the social butterfly, rich heiress, and McCain''s better half OUT OF THE PICTURE!!!

When he wins The White House, should he, Then the lady can host parties , plan events, pose for pretty pictures..........you get the point.

[valentin73]

Why is Mrs McCain in every picture posing with the man she loves? Does she have anything better to do? What does she have to do with politics?

Keep the social butterfly, rich heiress, and McCain''s better half OUT OF THE PICTURE!!!

When he wins The White House, should he, Then the lady can host parties , plan events, pose for pretty pictures..........you get the point.