For Most Local Politicians, There's One Place Called Home
Unlike most of her colleagues on the D.C. Council, member Carol Schwartz owns three homes.
(Sarah L. Voisin - Twp)
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Saturday, August 23, 2008
Keeping track of one's personal assets when one is a very busy elected official can be difficult.
After presidential candidate John McCain couldn't answer a reporter's question this week about how many homes he and his wife own (his staff later proffered an answer), politicians from the Washington area furrowed their brows, sighed and tried to answer the same query posed with the appropriate political timbre.
"Hmmm, let me count. . . . Ummm . . . wait," D.C. shadow senator Paul Strauss pondered. For quite some time.
"One! Yup, that's pretty much it," he said. "It's here, right in D.C. One house."
But he said he sympathizes with those who have a surplus of worldly goods, too numerous to readily tally.
"I have a lot of old T-shirts. It would take me hours to sort through all of them," he said. "And I wouldn't ask my staff to do that. Some of those shirts are older than some of them."
For D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), the surplus is pennies.
"I have a lot of pennies. I couldn't tell you how many pennies I own," the eternally deadpan Mendelson admitted.
But in terms of houses, Mendelson said he owns one. "It's on my campaign finance statement."
There are some, even among the ranks of D.C. Council members, who own more than one home.
"I own two. One in Georgetown and one in Delray Beach, Florida," said Jack Evans (D-Ward 2). "I am, like, the numbers guy. I know how much of everything I have. I know how many socks I have, how many pairs of underwear I have. I know all of it. And if it's missing, I track it down."
He said he remembers hunting down the missing letter "W" from one of his children's alphabet puzzles years ago, when he happened to notice an incomplete lineup.
