Dream Palaces of the Kerry Campaign

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz-Kerry own a lot of real estate. But is any of it on foreign soil?

HERE'S A QUESTION: Do either Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry or his wife, Teresa Heinz, own any foreign property? Certainly the couple have plenty of American residences. There's the $10 million Beacon Hill townhouse in Boston, for example. And the vacation ski lodge in Ketchum, Idaho. And the other vacation house in Nantucket. And then there's the estate outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And finally, the mansion in Georgetown . The total value of Kerry and Heinz's properties is estimated at around $33 million.

The key word here is "estimated." Kerry has filed financial disclosure forms with the Senate Ethics Committee since 1984, but those forms only disclose a senator's income-producing assets. Property isn't included. And the tax returns Kerry's campaign released in April contain information only on Kerry's Beacon Hill townhome, of which Kerry owns a half-share. Of course Heinz's tax returns would shed light on the number and value of the properties she owns. But she's declined to release past returns--making her the first would-be first lady in history to do so.

In other words, John Kerry's Senate financial disclosure forms are so vague, and Teresa Heinz Kerry's fortune so large, that the future first couple could own any number of foreign properties. And the public wouldn't know about it. Nor, for that matter, would Kerry's own campaign.

But let's say there were foreign properties, I said. How would they be disclosed?

The spokesman sniffed. "I don't know the first part of your question--the 'if'," he said. "So I don't need to answer the 'then' part."

His reluctance is understandable. On the topic of foreign property, the Kerry campaign feels that it's been victimized. Last year Internet provocateur Matt Drudge linked to a story suggesting that in 2002 Teresa Heinz, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, had sold a $7.8 million villa in Lake Como, Italy, to the actor George Clooney. The story turned out to be false. Clooney had bought the villa, but from another member of the Heinz family, not Teresa. "No one tied to John Kerry owned [the villa]," says the Kerry spokesman. "It had something to do with Heinz's ex-mother-in-law." (Clooney, incidentally, donated $2,000 to the Kerry campaign in March.)

We may yet find out more about John and Teresa's property holdings. On May 11 Heinz announced she would release the first two pages of her 2003 tax return when she files her taxes in October. Those two pages may contain more detailed information on Heinz's property holdings. But it's more likely they won't.

This isn't entirely correct. Kerry's 2002 and 2003 Senate disclosure forms are available on his website. According to the 2003 disclosure form, the H.J. Heinz II Charitable & Family Trust owned unimproved land in Ligoner, PA worth $250,001-$500,000 and property at 1925 Squaw Run Road in Pittsburgh worth $500,001-$1,000,000. Tay-ray-zah also owns at least a $1,000,000 interest in each of Heartwood Forestland Funds I, II, III and IV L.P., which own interest in forestland in WV, TN, VA, PA, MI, KY, NY, NC, TX, MO and MD. (I'm sure these forests are remaining dormant to fit with the Dems' environmental views.... NOT). These are owned through something called the Heinz Family Commingled Alternative Investment Funds, likely an estate planning-related entity. Those Alternative Funds also own a greater than $1,000,000 interest in Beacon Capital Strategic Partners II, a real estate fund that owns properties in Boston, Washington, Denver and Los Angeles.

But the disclosure forms don't show anything more than that about other real estate Tay-ray-zah owns.

What IS clear is that Tah-ray-zah's Marital Trust "disposed" of all of her publicly traded foreign stock in late 2002. Instead, she purchased a mutual fund from GMO. While the 2002 disclosure forms were silent on the type of fund owed, the 2003 disclosure forms state that it is a foreign fund. That narrows it down, but doesn't say much. My suspicions are that she probably owns something close to the long laundry list of foreign stock, and contributed those stocks to the GMO fund in order to avoid having to separately list them.

The only other foreign stuff listed on the disclosure forms is an interest that Tah-ray-zah's Marital Trust owns in South Africa Capital Growth Fund, L.P., a nice P.C. thing to own.

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz-Kerry own a lot of real estate. But is any of it on foreign soil?

The wording in this article, Gallic clan says Kerry isn't too French appears to indicate that a Kerry property exists in France when it says, "the family estate, known as Les Essarts, a sprawling property on a bluff over the sea" although I don't see a reference to who actually owns it today. If Kerry's mother is still living it could still be hers.

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