Four Candidates Lead Pack in Available Funds

Financial statements filed Saturday show that actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, investment banker Bill Simon Jr., Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and businessman Peter V. Ueberroth have personal holdings and incomes of several million dollars each.

The reported figures represent only a portion of their assets. The financial disclosure statements, required of all candidates for state public office, do not reflect amounts of more than $1 million.

Schwarzenegger, for example, is estimated to have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars during his career in movies and business, while Simon is heir to the investment banking firm founded by his father, a former secretary of the Treasury.

The candidates’ personal wealth could be a major factor in the two-month-long recall race, which will allow little time for grass-roots fund-raising.

Gov. Gray Davis, who spent $78 million over four years in his 2002 reelection bid, has set a goal of raising an additional $20 million to defend against the recall.

A financial disclosure report filed by commentator Arianna Huffington reflects a lesser fortune, while Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and state Sen. Tom McClintock reported sparse assets from their careers in public service.

Under current law, Davis can raise funds in unlimited amounts to fight the recall, but those seeking to replace him are subject to a limit of $3,000 from individual donors. There is no limit on how much candidates can spend of their own money.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

Schwarzenegger, who aides say may spend millions from his personal fortune in the recall race, can draw from both deep and varied pockets of wealth, according to filed reports.

The actor and former bodybuilder has at least $14 million spread over a wide array of stocks, bonds and partnerships. The partnerships include several million dollars in private stock equity partnerships, commercial real estate, overseas mutual funds and venture capital groups. He has more than $1 million each in 11 funds with firms such as Morgan Stanley Capital, Acacia Partners, Goldman Sachs, Lansdowne European Equity and Whitehall Street Real Estate. He holds hundreds of thousands of dollars in shares in such firms as Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Pepsico, General Electric and Wal-Mart, as well as government and municipal bonds.

In addition, he has what appears to be tens of millions of dollars invested in businesses and real estate entities, from his Oak Productions entertainment corporation to commercial real estate properties such as Main Street Plaza in Santa Monica and shopping mall interests in Ohio.

In addition to millions in income from films, Schwarzenegger generates hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in annual income from his real estate businesses, a fitness competition business investment and other ventures, according to the reports.

Separately, his wife, NBC anchor Maria Shriver, collects hundreds of thousands in salary, book royalties and trust-fund income.

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Bill Simon Jr.

Simon, who spent or lent $10 million of his own money in his losing run for governor last year, filed about 100 pages disclosing investments of at least $8 million, far less than the tens of millions reputed to be in his complex and interwoven family trusts.

The reports filed Saturday showed income of at least $840,000 a year from more than a dozen entities, including the Tonia Simon Marital Trust, the Simon Children’s Trust, William E. Simon & Sons and the William E. Simon Foundation.

Five trusts listed were worth more than $1 million.

Simon also reported holding assets ranging from $2,000 to $100,000 in hundreds of stock investments, but none exceeding $100,000.

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Peter V. Ueberroth

Orange County businessman Ueberroth reported income holdings similar to Simon’s.

Ueberroth, a former travel executive who managed the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles and was later baseball commissioner, reported an annual income of at least $670,000, as well as stock and stock options worth more than $6.7 million.

Ueberroth reported investments of more than $1 million each in six companies: Coca-Cola Co., Hilton Hotels, First American Corp., Ambassador International, Ambassadors Group and Lone Cypress Corp.

He received more than $100,000 in income from Hilton Hotels, Irvine Co., McLeod USA, PUG Farms, the Contrarian Group and Irvine Co.-Lido Peninsula Co.

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Larry Flynt

Flynt, 60, has built a multimillion-dollar business empire that includes property holdings and income from his magazine, Internet, video and casino ventures, his financial interest statement shows.

Flynt, who says he would expand legal gambling to increase state tax revenues, listed more than $7 million in property that he and his corporations own. This includes an office high-rise on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, the Hustler Retail Store in West Hollywood and the Hustler Casino in Gardena.

He listed more than $1 million in income from businesses that include the casino, a Hustler retail store in San Diego, a video production company, a magazine publishing company and two real estate firms. He showed an additional $100,000 to $1 million each in income from a boutique, restaurant and merchandise company.

Flynt received more than $100,000 in salary from his magazine company and more than $100,000 in salary from his video production and sales company. He also received more than $10,000 in salary from the company that manages his Beverly Hills office building.

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Arianna Huffington

Huffington, 53, a political columnist and author, listed two personal investments: her Brentwood home and a corporation she set up to collect her writing and appearance fees.

Formerly married to Republican multimillionare businessman Michael Huffington, she listed her only source of income as more than $100,000 a year from Christabella Inc., which she heads as president. The business is worth more than $1 million, according to her report.

Huffington’s biggest financial asset is the 8,000-square-foot home above Sunset Boulevard. She purchased the home for $4.1 million in 1997, records show. That was shortly after divorcing her husband, who had spent $5 million of his own money in winning a Central California congressional seat in 1992 and about $30 million two years later in losing a U.S. Senate campaign against Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

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Cruz Bustamante

Bustamante’s financial disclosure statement shows the lieutenant governor has holdings in several mutual funds. But because the disclosure categories are so broad, the value of his shares in American Funds, Invesco and agtrade.com could range anywhere from $24,000 to $220,000. Bustamante also owns rental property in Fresno worth between $10,001 and $100,000.

The lieutenant governor reported that he received a number of gifts last year, including a $65 bottle of wine from Ray Boucher, a Beverly Hills attorney involved in an unsuccessful lawsuit to block the recall effort against Gray Davis from getting on the ballot.

Bustamante received a gift bag, a candy basket and a business card holder from Tennessee distiller Jack Daniels, a $150 bottle of wine from Joseph Phelps Winery in St. Helena, Calif., and three separate gifts from David Lizarraga, head of TELACU, the East Los Angeles Community Union.

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Tom McClintock

McClintock, 47, has spent almost his entire adult life in politics, having first been elected to the state Assembly in 1982 when he was 26. As a result, he has few assets, his statement of economic interests shows.

Other than the $99,000 a year he earns as a legislator, he reported income that his wife received from two churches in the city of Elk Grove, south of Sacramento.

Tree of Life Community Church paid her between $1,001 and $10,000 and First Baptist Church of Elk Grove between $10,001 and $100,000. McClintock commutes between Elk Grove, where his children attend school, and his Southern California legislative district.

He listed no investments.