Washington Wrap
Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Beth Lester, Clothilde Ewing and Sean Sharifi of the CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.
Friday's Headlines
* Teresa Heinz Kerry to File Tax Returns Late
* Abortion Rights Supporters March on Washington
* I Actually Bought an SUV Before I Didn't Buy an SUV
* Another Poll Shows Specter's Lead Dropping
* New Campaign Money Report
* Democratic Insiders Don't Like Hillary
Teresa's Taxes Drag On: With pressure on to release her tax returns, the Kerry campaign told CBS News on Thursday that Teresa Heinz Kerry would seek an extension for filing her 2003 taxes.
While many ordinary citizens get extensions to sort out their finances, it seems more likely that THK is motivated by politics. The extension, of up to four months, gives "her husband John F. Kerry's presidential campaign until mid-August to decide whether to make her tax records public." That date is after the Democratic National Convention and "at a time when many Americans will be tuning into the televised 2004 Summer Olympic Games or are possibly on vacation," reports the Boston Globe.
However, Kerry communications director Stephanie Cutter told CBS News that there were no plans to release Heinz Kerry's taxes when she files later this year.
Under campaign finance laws, neither presidential candidates nor their spouses are required to release their taxes. Most presidential candidates do so voluntarily (as Sen. Kerry has done) but rarely is there similar disclosure from the spouse. Because of Heinz Kerry's estimated at $500 million worth, however, "some campaign aides have discussed among themselves whether to release the records in order to settle questions raised by Republicans and in the media about whether her considerable wealth…is benefiting Kerry or his campaign in ways that would not be apparent from his tax returns." Heinz Kerry herself told reporters Thursday, "If some god of taxes would want to come in and look at all of my portfolio, I'd let them…But I don't think I have the right to put my children's privacy out into the open."
Even if THK does not release her taxes, it is still possible to divine quite a bit of information about her assets from Sen. Kerry's Senate ethics disclosure form, which requires candidates and their spouses to detail their holdings in terms of bands: less than $1,000, $1,000-15,000, $15,001-50,000, etc, up to over $1,000,000 for a spouse. A CBS News analysis of the 2002 disclosure (2003 must be filed by May 17 and will be available in June unless the campaign releases them earlier) shows that Heinz Kerry has up to $1,430,000 in a series of general bank accounts, and 141 stocks valued at over $1,000,000 each. These stocks include DelMonte as well as Heinz, Pfizer, Walgreen, Anheuser Busch and Gannett.
There is only one asset listed as "joint," as opposed to just THK's. That is a "painting held as an investment" which we know from Sen. Kerry's 2003 tax returns that they sold this year. All the other assets are listed as "spouse" meaning that Sen. Kerry has no access to that money – crucial for campaign finance laws. Most interesting fact: THK's disclosure stretches for 47 pages. Her husband's only take up four pages.
Abortion Rights Activists Keep on Marching: Hundreds of thousands of women's rights activists are expected in Washington on Sunday for their first major rally in the capital in 12 years. Event planners for "The March for Women's Lives" expect everyone from soccer moms to Hollywood actors, to march to promote safe abortions, birth control and sex education for women worldwide, reports the Washington Post.
Sponsors unveiled plans that include a permit for 750,000 people at the event, which is to begin with a rally on the Mall at 10 a.m. Sunday. The rally will be followed by a march through downtown, beginning at noon and they will return to the Mall for a rally from about 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Speeches, the rally before the march and a closing rally are expected to feature a host of people, including celebrities, statesmen and activists.
Seven organizations, including National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Feminist Majority, the American Civil Liberties Union, and new sponsors the Black Women's Health Imperative and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health formed the main sponsorship of this weekends events by supplying the bulk of a $3 million operating budget, staff and a mailing list of 1.2 million. And, an additional 1,400 groups, ranging from neighborhood church groups to national labor organizations, are co-sponsors. Feminist Majority also recruited marchers from college campuses, the Post reports. The march also picked up a first-time endorsement from the NAACP.
John Kerry won't be one of the marchers ("It would make it too political," one of the organizers told CBS News with a straight face) but on Friday he will receive the endorsements of NARAL and Planned Parenthood and will attend a rally in Washington with leaders of women's groups to compare his stand on abortion rights to Bush's.
Kerry has come under fire again from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church because of his abortion-rights views, and on Friday, according to the AP, a top Vatican cardinal said that priests must deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whom Kerry visited last week in Washington, heads a committee studying the issue and said, appearing on Fox News on Easter Sunday, that he isn't sure the church should apply this particular sanction. Stay tuned.
To SUV or Not to SUV?: First Al Gore invents the Internet, and now this.
The New York Post reports: "On Earth Day, Democrat John Kerry reluctantly admitted to having a gas-guzzling SUV in the family - but blamed his wife.
'The family has it. I don't have it,' Kerry said yesterday.
"But at first, Kerry - quizzed by reporters on a conference call - tried to deny any links to a gas-guzzler on a day when he was touting his credentials as an environmentalist.
'I don't own an SUV,' he initially insisted - but 'fessed up when asked if his wife, ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry, owned the Chevrolet Suburban seen at their Sun Valley ski lodge."
Kerry has pushed for a huge increase in gas mileage – to 36 mpg - by 2015. Chevy Suburbans, according to fueleconomy.com, aren't quite up to those standards. A 2000 Suburban with four-wheel drive, for example, gets a not-so-green 14 miles to the gallon in the city and 16 MPG on the highway, the site says.
The Bush-Cheney campaign jumped all over the story, of course, noting in a press release that Kerry told the Detroit News, when asked what kind of vehicles his family drives: "We have some SUVs. We have a Jeep. We have a couple of Chrysler minivans. We have a PT Cruiser up in Boston. I have an old Dodge 600 that I keep in the Senate. ... We also have a Chevy, a big Suburban."
"Only John Kerry could take both sides on whether or not he owns an SUV," said Bush-Cheney spokesman Steve Schmidt.
In Kerry's defense, there is a definite bright line between things he owns and things his mind-bogglingly wealthy wife, ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry, owns. For example, the house in Sun Valley where the Suburban-in-question resides, is owned by Mrs. Heinz Kerry, as are the houses in Georgetown, Pittsburgh and Nantucket. For his part, Kerry owns one-half of the townhouse in Boston, which he in fact mortgaged to keep his then-struggling campaign back in December of 2003.
Ah, the struggles of being married to a woman with $550 million.
Specter-Toomey Race Close: As the April 27 Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary approaches, Thursday's Keystone Poll from the Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster shows the incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter leading challenger Rep. Patrick Toomey by 6 percentage points, down from 13 points last month. Last month, Specter led 46 percent to 33 percent for Toomey; the new poll has the race at Specter 46 percent-Toomey 40 percent. This survey interviewed , 401 registered Republicans in Pennsylvania over the telephone between April 13 and April 20, 2004. G. Terry Madonna, director of the Keystone Poll, commented, "Core Republican voters are saying maybe it's time for a change."
The New York Times reports that both candidates are preparing major get-out-the-vote operations and an onslaught of new commercials in preparation for Tuesday's closely watched vote. Experts predict that the outcome of this primary election will be contingent on voter turnout. The Keystone poll shows that higher turnout advantages Specter while lower turnout advantages Toomey.
Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for The Cook Political Report, said that Democrats are hoping Mr. Toomey will win because he would be easier to defeat in November by Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel, the Democratic candidate. Duffy said, "It comes down to whose voters are motivated. I think there is a lot of energy behind Toomey."
Small (Money)is Beautiful: The latest report from the Campaign Finance Institute has some headlines that few would have predicted when the presidential race began. First, the CFI reports that while major donors (over $1,000) were still the largest source of funds, both President Bush and Sen. Kerry are emphasizing small contributions.
In March, "President Bush, who had previously raised just 17% of his contributions from less than $200 donations, received 39% of his total from small contributions." And, notes the CFI, "President Bush's small donor performance would have set a record, except for one thing: John Kerry raised even more."
The other major headline is that, despite all naysayers, "Kerry is Financially Competitive with Bush." The CFI says, "After months of press speculation that President Bush's fundraising prowess would 'bury' the Democratic nominee after Super Tuesday, it now seems clear that Senator Kerry is in a position to hold his own financially." While Bush does hold a significant advantage over Kerry, "total Democratic candidate receipts (including public matching funds for those who remained in the public financing system) have exceeded those of the President $254 million to $186 million."
And, notes the CFI, Kerry "outraised Bush $44 million to $26 million in March after becoming the presumptive nominee."
Hillary Not on Insiders' Veep List: In this week's National Journal Insiders Poll of Democratic operatives, Hillary Clinton wins a veepstakes battle: she is the runaway winner in the "least-wanted VP" category. Coming in far behind her are Sen. John McCain, Wesley Clark, Sen. Bill Nelson and several others. The congratulations must be flowing in.
On the flip side, several candidates come up winners in one-on-one contests. This week, Insiders were given lists of two names and asked to choose which one would make a better VP pick. In the first pair, John Edwards v. Dick Gephardt, the charismatic Southerner comes out well ahead, 30 votes to 19. Explains one Insider of the top two (rumored to be the only ones who are currently being seriously vetted), "Kerry needs to inject some more personality into the Democratic ticket … Edwards completes the package." Another says, "Dick Gephardt is a great man, but a Kerry-Gephardt ticket screams 'old Democrats.'"
Other categories for the one-on-one match-ups are what the National Journal terms Governors (Tom Vilsack v. Bill Richardson), Sunshine Boys (Bob Graham v. Bill Nelson), Full Metal Jacket (Wesley Clark v. Bob Kerrey), and Rock Stars (McCain v. Clinton). The gubernatorial winner is Vilsack of Iowa over Richardson of New Mexico, 29 to 21: "Vilsack guarantees Iowa and is a solid performer who can at least talk to farmers in a way that Kerry cannot." Sunshine Sen. Graham bests his colleague Nelson, 30 to 19, and Gen. Clark (Ret.) edges former Sen. Kerrey, 25 to 23, in the all-military category.
The Rock Stars category is a pairing from the "least wanted list": McCain tops Clinton, 32 to 15. As one Insider explains, "I don't like the idea at all of McCain as the VP, let alone president, but he helps Kerry more in the election than Hillary does, by a wide margin."
No word on whether chief Kerry vetter Jim Johnson is evaluating VPs in the same categories.
Quote of the Day: "It could have been worse. Pete could have been identified as John Kerry" – Brewery king Pete Coors' spokesperson, Cinamon Watson, on the GOP Colorado Senate candidate being misidentified as a Ku Klux Klan member and murderer in a photo caption in Thursday's New York Times. (Rocky Mountain News).