State records showed Thursday that the governor’s race is a millionaires’ club filled with blue chip stocks.
In this Dec. 11, 2008 file photo, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo speaks in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
Both major party nominees, who are campaigning as reformers, released to reporters unredacted forms identifying ranges of investments and income beyond what is required under law.
Republican candidate Rick Lazio released his financial disclosure form to the state Commission on Public Integrity on Thursday, about two weeks late, but he faces no penalty. His campaign blamed the missed date on a misunderstanding.
Democrat Andrew Cuomo’s form was released on time earlier this month.
The forms cover the 2009 calendar year.
Both candidates show investments and bank accounts over $250,000. Both have previously confirmed recent $1 million salaries and other compensation — Lazio as a lobbyist on Wall Street, and Cuomo as an adviser to a real estate magnate.
The forms show Cuomo, who is divorced and lives in New York City, doesn’t own property. Lazio owns with his wife a two-bedroom Manhattan apartment he said is valued at more than $250,000.
Cuomo’s disclosure shows he has a bank account with JPMorgan Chase valued at less than $5,000; an investment with AMG National Trust Bank in Colorado worth more than $250,000; and an investment earnings with POA Partners, an investment group that dissolved in 2009, worth between $20,000 and $60,000.
Cuomo lists his job as attorney general, making $144,000 a year. As part of an Albany tradition, he has previously made his income tax returns available to reporters. Those showed he made more than $1 million in 2005, before he was elected attorney general, working for real estate developer Andrew Farkas.
Lazio said he is on unpaid leave as managing director for JPMorgan Chase. He reports that his job last year at JPMorgan Chase paid him over $250,000, the F category and the highest level on the form, and he received more than $250,000 in income from a JPMorgan fund. He has told reporters he made $560,000 in salary in 2009 from JPMorgan.
He has not said when he would release his income tax return as governor candidates have in the past even if they don’t hold public sector jobs.
The executive director of the state Democratic Party, Charlie King, who responded to questions posed to Cuomo’s campaign, said he wanted to know what Lazio is “so afraid of.”
“We still don’t know if he has conflicts,” King said. “Is Lazio a man of his word or just another grubby politician?”
Lazio’s campaign declined to comment.
Lazio also reported rental income for a storage unit in New York and income from a JPMorgan Global Fund investment, each valued at under $5,000. He reported more than two dozen securities including investments worth more than $250,000 in two JPMorgan funds and an investment in OEP III C-Investors, a limited partnership of investors.
He also reported investments each worth $100,000 to $250,000 in IMAX Corp., JPMorgan Global Access, JPMorgan Short Term Municipal Bond Fund and OEP II Co-Investors.
By MICHAEL GORMLEY,Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
