Republican U.S. Senate candidate Land has deep pockets

She lists dozens of apartment complexes, Florida real estate and other large assets

By David Eggert
Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land and her family have assets worth tens of millions of dollars, mostly in western Michigan apartment complexes and Florida condominiums run by her husband, according to a financial disclosure report.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to grow what started as a very small family business into a successful Michigan-based company that provides jobs for hundreds of Michigan residents,” the former Michigan secretary of state said in a statement Monday. “We will once again personally invest in our campaign efforts because we care deeply about the country that we leave to our children and grandchildren.”

In the report filed Friday, Land said she and husband, Dan Hibma, had retirement accounts, stocks and mutual funds worth a total of $338,000 to $1 million as of July 30. Hibma’s companies netted at least $2.5 million in 2012 by selling some properties.

Land, 55, listed dozens of apartment complexes, real estate development businesses and other assets worth at least $34 million, total. The high range was nearly $41 million, though could be even more because several were listed as “over $1 million.”

The only debts reported were $950,000 to $2.3 million in mortgages on condos in Kissimmee, Fla.

Land also disclosed tens of millions of income, but much of it was gross rental income that did not factor in property taxes and other expenses. Members of Congress are not required to be specific, only to put values in certain ranges, so it is impossible to determine Land’s exact net worth or annual income unless she volunteers the information.

She did specify $410,000 in service fees, commissions and other income earned by Hibma’s business entities from January 2012 through last month. She also listed her pension from being Kent County clerk in the 1990s, but said the value was unascertainable.

“I am a strong believer in transparency, and made it a priority to file the necessary paperwork with the Senate regarding my personal and family income,” Land said.

She is the lone Republican running so far. But U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, of Midland, who has more than $3 million in his campaign account, is considering it.

Land didn’t say how much money her family would spend on the race. She and her husband contributed more than $1.9 million to her 2002 and 2006 Secretary of State campaigns. Her father, Paul Land, kicked in more than $540,000 to a political action committee to help her 2002 campaign, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, of Bloomfield Township, is the leading Democratic candidate in the 2014 race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Carl Levin. Peters, a former state lawmaker and lottery commissioner, reported assets worth from $970,000 to $3.9 million at the end of 2012, according to a recent report.

Land and her husband live in Byron Center outside Grand Rapids. Members of Congress are not required to disclose the value of their homes.