The Washington Independent » Cindy McCain

States Report Lower-Than-Expected Tax Revenue

Annie Lowrey — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:00:28 +0000

All that hand-wringing over California being the next Greece might not be for nothing. States are starting to report their April tax collections, and several have announced numbers far lower than expected even a few weeks ago, auguring bigger deficits and budget shortfalls for next year. The Wall Street Journal reports that collections are down 26 percent in California, 12 percent in Pennsylvania and 10 percent in Kansas. States are starting to look to the federal government — itself under pressure to reduce deficit spending — to make up the shortfall:

Kansas lawmakers are hoping the federal government will help. After the state’s April revenue missed estimates set just two weeks earlier, the legislature responded by changing the state budget to assume Congress will extend more federal support for Medicaid through the end of the year.

Increased federal spending on Medicaid…was a major component of last year’s stimulus package, and it has helped many states prop up their budgets. But it is uncertain that Congress will approve more such funding.

In some states, governors are responding to the April shortfalls on their own. Missouri’s April tax revenue decreased $13.2 million, or 3.6 percent, from the same month a year ago. State budget director Linda Luebbering ordered agencies to hold back $45 million in appropriated spending because tax collections were so far below projections.

Other states have already taken drastic measures to close budget shortfalls. For instance, in March, Arizona decided to end its state health insurance program for children, eliminating free coverage for 47,000 kids. California might end its welfare-to-work program as well as a number of child-care initiatives. And South Carolina has closed group homes for children and a program to help youths emerging from prison sentences to get jobs.

Yes, Yes, But What Did Meghan McCain Think?

David Weigel — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:22:20 +0000

The New York Daily News was embedded with Meghan McCain, who “will soon release a book about life as a Republican,” at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and reports that she stood “like an insolent child” until a friend could get a free ticket. She blanched at one of Wanda Sykes’ jokes, about her father being upset that he didn’t have a helicopter and her mother being able to buy one for him?

“I didn’t like the joke about my mom [Cindy],” the young McCain told us after the dinner. “Why talk about her at all? I (didn’t mind the jokes) about my dad, but leave my mom out of it. It really wasn’t in good taste.”

If McCain needs a job post-book tour, she really should be involved in the WHCD in some way. Celebrity entitlement syndrome, outrage at jokes that everyone forgets five minutes later — she’s got it down cold.

McCain Camp Announces Surprise Visit

Matthew DeLong — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:05:51 +0000

Moments ago, the McCain campaign press office sent out the following press release:

MEDIA ADVISORY
Mrs. Cindy McCain to Make Surprise Visit to Volunteers at Orlando Victory Office in Orlando, Florida

For Immediate Release

Friday, October 24, 2008

ARLINGTON, VA – The McCain-Palin presidential campaign today announced Mrs. Cindy McCain and Mayor Rudy Giuliani will make a surprise visit to volunteers at the Orlando Victory Office on Saturday, October 25^th in Orlando, FL.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

WHO: Mrs. Cindy McCain

Mayor Rudy Giuliani

WHAT: Surprise Visit to Volunteers at Orlando Victory Office

WHEN: Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 6:50 p.m. EDT

WHERE: Orlando Victory Office
234 S. Semoran Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32807

The obvious question is: If it’s supposed to be a surprise, wouldn’t it make sense to just show up at the Orlando office? How surprised do you suppose the volunteers would be now?

Of course, you wouldn’t want Cindy McCain and Rudy Giuliani to show their gratitude to all the hard-working volunteers without any TV cameras present.

Cindy McCain’s Tax Returns … at Last

Sridhar Pappu — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:51:14 +0000

For months now, the media covering the McCain campaign have been clamoring for potential first lady Cindy McCain’s tax returns.

Well, the campaign that is so fond of releasing information late on Friday evening, driving my colleagues from the television networks berserk, has released her returns from 2006 and 2007, with 18 days left in the race.

As expected, what one sees in the returns, which you can access here, is a woman who carries the brunt of the household earnings. In 2007, she had income of $4,197,028 and paid $2,092,301 in taxes. She received a $954,112 refund.

All this leaves us with one question: How will she spend her $5,000 health care credit?

Verizon Map Clearly Labels ‘John McCain’s Cabin’ as Tower Site

Matthew DeLong — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:25:35 +0000

Shortly after The Washington Post broke the “Cell-Phone Tower-gate” story — which suggests Verizon undertook considerable expense to begin the regulatory process for constructing a permanent cell-phone tower near Sedona, Ariz., on the remote estate of Sen. John McCain, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee — the telecommunications firm issued a flat denial of any improper behavior.

The story began in early 2007, when McCain’s wife, Cindy, made an online request for the company to improve service at the 15-acre property — which Peter Thonis, a Verizon spokesman, said was denied. However, as The Post article demonstrates, this is not exactly true.

On Sept. 18, 2007, a Mesa, Ariz., contractor working for Verizon surveyed the McCain property. Another contractor drafted blueprints (see document – note large file size) calling for moving a utility shed and installing a 40-foot tower with two antennas and a microwave dish, surrounded by a six-foot wooden fence.

Construction costs would be $22,000, records show. Industry specialists said the figure probably only covers the tower and fence because the antennas, the dish and power source would run the cost into the six figures. On Dec. 4, Cindy McCain signed a letter (see document) authorizing Verizon Wireless to act on her behalf to seek county land-use permits.

Coverage maps submitted by Verizon to the county show that the tower would fill gaps in unpopulated parts of Coconino National Forest and on about 20 parcels of land, including a handful of residences, and two small businesses open only by appointment.

The Atlantic’s Joshua Green acquired an internal map of the area, from a Verizon engineer’s report, that reveals the company was acutely aware of who owned the property being considered for a permanent tower:

Green also reports that Verizon commissioned an expensive environmental survey of the property, which required an archaeological study to ensure the tower would not be constructed on sacred Indian land.

As Green notes, the McCains may not have specifically requested a favor from the telecom company, but the evidence does seem to suggest that they were prepared to accept a big one.

Did The McCains Receive Special Treatment From Telecom Firms?

Matthew DeLong — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:58:50 +0000

Have you ever lived somewhere with really lousy cell phone service?

If so, you’ve probably wondered if there was anything you could do about it. As it turns out, there is — as long as you happen to be married to a powerful senator who sits on the the Senate Commerce Committee.

In June of this year, Verizon Wireless delivered, free of charge, a portable cell phone tower to the 15-acre estate near Sedona, Ariz., owned by Sen. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, according to The Washington Post. In July, AT&T provided another portable tower. One year earlier, Cindy McCain had put in a request on Verizon’s Website to improve cell phone service at her residence.

Over the course of the past year, Cindy McCain had offered land for a permanent cell tower and Verizon embarked on an expensive process to meet her needs, hiring contractors and seeking county land-use permits even though few people other than the McCains would benefit from the tower…

On Sept. 18, 2007, a Mesa, Ariz., contractor working for Verizon surveyed the McCain property. Another contractor drafted blueprints (see document) calling for moving a utility shed and installing a 40-foot tower with two antennas and a microwave dish, surrounded by a six-foot wooden fence.

Construction costs would be $22,000, records show. Industry specialists said the figure probably only covers the tower and fence because the antennas, the dish and power source would run the cost into the six figures.

Why would Verizon and AT&T undertake such expenses on behalf of a very small number of customers? There is at least one possible explanation.

Ethics lawyers said Cindy McCain’s dealings with the wireless companies stand out because Sen. John McCain is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the Federal Communications Commission and the telecommunications industry. He has been a leading advocate for industry-backed legislation, fighting regulations and taxes on telecommunications services.

McCain and his campaign have close ties to Verizon and AT&T. Five campaign officials, including campaign manager Rick Davis, have worked as lobbyists for Verizon. Former McCain staffer Robert Fisher is an in-house lobbyist for Verizon and is volunteering for the campaign. Fisher, Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg and company lobbyists have raised more than $1.3 million for McCain’s presidential campaign and Verizon employees are among the top 20 corporate donors over McCain’s political career, giving more than $155,000 to his campaigns.

McCain’s Senate chief of staff Mark Buse, senior strategist Charles R. Black Jr., and several other campaign staffers have registered as AT&T lobbyists in the past. AT&T Executive Vice President Timothy McKone and AT&T lobbyists have raised more than $2.3 million for McCain. AT&T employees have donated more than $325,000 to McCain campaigns, putting the company in the No. 3 spot for career donations to McCain, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

“It raises the aura of special consideration for somebody because he is a member of the Senate,” said Stanley Brand, a former House counsel for Democrats and an ethics attorney who represents politicians of both parties. “Here is a guy who is campaigning as Mr. Maverick and Mr. Reformer and he keeps skirting the edge.”

Some may note that, because McCain is the Republican presidential nominee, his security detail provided by the U.S. Secret Service may require solid coverage to perform its duties. According to the post, the service could have made do with the existing coverage, because it relies on multiple layers of communications, including radio. However, the plans for the permanent tower on the property were well underway by the time the Secret Service contacted Verizon and asked to speed up the process after Memorial Day. The portable towers then arrived promptly.

The Post reports that plans for the permanent tower were killed soon after the newspaper put in a records request, Verizon killed the project, saying “it doesn’t make business sense.”

Not surprisingly, the McCain campaign denies McCain’s position or connections to the telecommunications industry’s lobbyists played any role in the extraordinary attention the Arizona senator received.

And maybe they didn’t. But next time you find yourself living somewhere with sub-par cell phone service, just for fun, why not give Verizon or AT&T a call and request your own personal cell-phone tower and see how quickly they spring into action.

Keating Connection: The Sequel

John Dougherty — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:39:42 +0000

Cindy McCain addresses the Republican National Convention. (Wikimedia)

PHOENIX—Sen. John McCain’s wife and father-in-law continued a lucrative business partnership with disgraced financier Charles H. Keating Jr. for 11 years after the GOP presidential nominee said he ended his close friendship with Keating in March 1987.

Cindy McCain’s business partnership with Keating in a real-estate development between 1986 and 1998 netted her a tidy profit, in addition to years of significant tax benefits. Her father, who died in 2000, earned similar returns.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

McCain’s campaign and his Senate office did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails concerning Cindy McCain’s investment with Keating. McCain and his wife file separate tax returns and signed a pre-nuptial agreement before their marriage in May 1980. Cindy McCain owns one of the nation’s largest beer distributorships, Hensley & Company.

On Monday, McCain’s attorney, John Dowd, said in a conference call with reporters that McCain was not aware of his wife’s and father-in-law’s investment with Keating at the time it was made. “John was unconnected to that and unaware of it at the time and did not participate in it,” Dowd said.

However, during the Keating Five Senate Ethics Committee hearings in 1990-91, McCain testified that he was aware of the family investment with Keating in early 1986.

Under questioning from Dowd, McCain said he learned of the investment from a Hensley & Co. executive.

“I was told …they were going to invest in a shopping center and that the investment –- the project — was being put together by a subsidiary of American Continental,” McCain told the ethics committee. “He [the executive] later told me that had happened. And I had no interest in it and just noted in passing that this investment took place.”

The GOP presidential candidate writes in one memoir that a turbulent 30-minute verbal altercation in his Senate office on March 24, 1987, ended his six-year friendship with Keating. The argument began after McCain heard from another senator that Keating had called him “a wimp.”

“We never met again,” McCain wrote in his 2002 memoir, “Worth the Fighting For.” “I never had another conversation with him.”

The rupture in their personal relationship, however, didn’t stop McCain from attending two meetings the next month with federal banking regulators at Keating’s insistence. McCain’s attendance at the April meetings nearly halted his political career. The Senate Ethics Committee, which investigated McCain’s actions on behalf of Keating, who was seeking regulatory relief for his savings and loan business, found that McCain used “poor judgment” in his dealings with Keating.

Nor did the end of McCain’s relationship with Keating affect his immediate family’s business relationship with the financier. Cindy McCain and her father, James Hensley, remained investors in the Keating real-estate partnership that included a north Phoenix shopping center. The center sold in July 1998 for $15.4 million.

Their business relationship with Keating began April 15, 1986, when the two bought an 8 percent stake in Fountain Square Associates Ltd. Partnership. Cindy McCain and her father made the $359,100 investment through Western Leasing Co., a partnership they jointly owned.

Fountain Square Associates was structured as a tax shelter for wealthy investors. Its only asset was the Phoenix shopping center, which was built by another Keating-controlled company. The shelter allowed investors to use real-estate depreciation as a tax deduction, a provision later banned by Congress.

The Fountain Square Associates’ prospectus promised investors a 37 percent annual return on their investment. Cindy McCain and Hensley were among 54 investors in the partnership, most of whom were Keating employees and associates. Western Leasing purchased six shares in the partnership, Keating bought two and most of the remaining investors one share or less. Each share sold for $59,850.

Fountain Square Associates’ general partner, which oversaw daily operations, was American Continental Resources Corp., a subsidiary of Keating’s Phoenix-based American Continental Corp. American Continental also owned Lincoln Savings & Loan, the thrift that Keating asked McCain and the four other senators to protect from regulators.

In 1989, American Continental filed for bankruptcy, leaving more than 23,000 investors holding worthless bonds. Many bondholders were elderly and thought thought their investments were insured because Keating had sold them at federally insured Lincoln Savings branches.

Keating was convicted on 73 counts of bankruptcy and wire fraud in 1993, and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. Four years later, his conviction was overturned on a technicality. In 1999, Keating pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and was sentenced to time served.

Despite the bankruptcy, American Continental Resources managed to keep control of the shopping center owned by Fountain Square Associates, which allowed Cindy McCain and Hensley to take advantage of its tax breaks. After the shopping center sold, McCain’s 1998 Senate financial disclosure statement reported under “unearned income” that his wife made between $100,001 and $1 million on the sale of the property. In previous years, McCain’s financial statements had valued the Fountain Square partnership at less than $1,000, generating income of less than $200.

In 1998, Cindy McCain held millions of dollars worth of assets in stocks, municipal bonds and other securities, including a partnership share worth at least $1 million in the Arizona Diamondbacks. She also had investments in two other real estate projects, each worth at least $1 million, including a master planned community in Yuma, Ariz., and 160 acres of undeveloped property in Mesa, Ariz.

The same year, Cindy McCain also owed more than $1 million to a Phoenix bank, and had more than $200,000 in loans from the family’s beer distributorship.

Sen. McCain’s only income in 1998, besides his Senate salary, was his $49,688 Navy pension. He also listed three bank accounts totaling less than $31,000. He reported no liabilities.

The Fountain Square sale generated the second largest amount of income from Cindy McCain’s array of investments in 1998, according to Sen. McCain’s financial disclosure statement. Only dividends from Cindy McCain’s investment in Hensley & Company stock, which exceeded $1 million, generated more income.

Cindy McCain’s and Hensley’s 1986 investment in Fountain Square earned the father and daughter team a nice return. Its greater value to the family, however, may have had more to do with politics than money. Their investment was made the same year that McCain was running for the Senate seat held by the retiring Barry M. Goldwater. Keating and his employees contributed more than $50,000 to McCain’s campaign, bringing their total contributions to McCain since 1982 to at least $112,000.

Cindy McCain: Attack Dog?

Matthew DeLong — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:00:18 +0000

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, has long played a supportive role on the campaign trail. She frequently introduces him, praises his record and appeals to female voters to support him. However, in the last couple of days, she has taken on the role of attack dog.

Yesterday, before the presidential debate in Nashville, she accused Sen. Barack Obama, somewhat hyperbolically, of running “the dirtiest campaign in American history.”

Introducing her husband today at a McCain-Palin campaign rally in Bethlehem, Pa., the normally soft-spoken McCain blasted Obama for failing to support the troops in Iraq.

From Politico:

Amie Parnes reports from a McCain speech in Pennsylvania that Cindy McCain again went after Obama directly today, and accuses him, more or less, of endangering her son’s life.

“The day that Sen. Obama cast a vote to not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body, let me tell you,” she said. “I would suggest Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day. I suggest he take a day and go watch our men and women deploying.”

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has become Sen. McCain’s vehicle of choice for attacking Obama on his ties to former Weatherman William Ayers.

Now his wife is attacking Obama’s patriotism and campaign tactics.

McCain has done neither. It seems the McCain campaign is using the two women to make claims that the Republican presidential nominee is unwilling to make.

Are McCain’s strategists attempting to capitalize on the fact that the Obama campaign can’t easily hit back at Cindy McCain without looking like jerks?

Again, does McCain’s unwillingness to “go there” himself tell us something about how he views the legitimacy of these attacks?

Obama Camp: McCain’s Ears Ring for Bush

Ari Melber — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:00:45 +0000

La Crosse, WISC. — Watching Sen. Barack Obama’s rally here this morning, I noticed that while his surrogates attacked the Republican nominee, Obama largely avoided the word “McCain.” Direct partisan attacks were totally absent from his address, a bipartisan call for action on the financial system bailout, as others have reported.

McCain’s ears were ringing anyway, or so his campaign claimed, because it quickly complained that Obama was launching personal attacks.

The plane is about to take off for Washington, where this squabbling can surely intensify, but for now here’s how Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded:

Given the fact that Barack Obama did not attack John McCain today, it is a telling admission that the McCain campaign saw Barack Obama’s attack on eight years of greed and irresponsibility in Washington as a personal attack on John McCain. We’ll leave it up to the McCain campaign to explain why they get so offended and defensive when George Bush’s record is attacked.

While I doubt most voters will care, since economic problems outstrip the blame game, this is a decent bit of rhetorical ju-jitsu.

If McCain takes offense at attacks on Bush’s economic record, argues Obama, it’s a revealing reaction.

Cindy McCain En Route to Georgia

Matthew DeLong — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:06:11 +0000

At a fund-raiser in Sacramento, Sen. John McCain just told attendees that his wife, Cindy, is en route to the war-torn country of Georgia. No word yet on what her plans are. Last week, McCain dispatched his friends, surrogates and fellow U.S. Senate Armed Service Committee members Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

UPDATE: Via Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Holmes, McCain did an interview with Time before she left, which sheds some more light on what she will do in Georgia:

McCain is traveling with the U.N.’s World Food Program, whose work she monitored in Southeast Asia and Africa this spring and summer. McCain planned to meet with Georgian President Mikheil Sakaasvili, and to visit with wounded Georgian soldiers. She would also visit representatives of the HALO Trust, which works to remove landmines and on whose board she serves.