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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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The Numbers Guy said he cannot imagine that McCain doesn't have a full roster of his homes memorized. "I'm sure Senator McCain knows how many homes he owns. He just didn't want to say."
Ah-haaaaaa.
Therein lies a nuance in political speak. Politicians play down their real estate holdings in almost precise inverse proportion to the degree that real estate agents trump them up, extolling the features most house hunters would shun.
Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) is the closest to a land baroness that D.C. government has, although she takes great care to minimize her portfolio.
"I have three," Schwartz said, describing each home with adjectives any real estate listing agent would loathe: "tiny, old, one-bedroom, old, 45-year-old, little and . . . old."
She has a one-bedroom condo in Florida purchased for $23,000 more than 33 years ago for her mother-in-law; a Cape Cod-style home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., (downtown, not by the ocean, she emphasized); and her apartment in the District.
Politicians cast their living arrangements in the most humble light imaginable:
"A manufactured home with a slight colonial tone to it," said Scott K. York (I), chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, describing his one property, his family's Sterling home.
Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) lives with his family in a two-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot Fairfax farmhouse. It was assessed at $690,000 this year, according to the county's online assessment database. He does not own any other homes, he said, but disclosure filings show that he owns an office condominium in the county.
The fellow Republican does not begrudge McCain his multiple properties. "Put it this way: What if someone came to you and said: 'I'll make a deal with you. You can be tortured and live in a bamboo box for six years and then later own seven houses.' What would you say?"
Several public officials punted the question of their number of homes to staff members, who played down the properties' features.
Stephanie Lundberg, a spokeswoman for U.S. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md), said he owns two residences: one in his district, the other in the District of Columbia, a "fairly modest condo."
