I’m curious, does anyone know how many homes Mitt Romney owns?
Reader R.S. passes along this item that ran in the San Diego Union Tribune yesterday.
GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, scheduled to attend a series of fundraisers this weekend in San Diego, is also working on plans to nearly quadruple the size of his $12 million oceanfront manse in La Jolla.
Romney has filed an application with the city to bulldoze his 3,009-square-foot, single-story home at 311 Dunemere Dr. and replace it with a two-story, 11,062-square-foot structure…. Tentative plans call for new retaining walls and a relocated driveway, but would retain the existing lap pool and spa.
I’m sure it’s lovely, but in a purely political context, I seem to recall another very wealthy Republican presidential contender running into some trouble three years ago when he struggled to answer a simple question: how many homes do you own?
As best as I can tell, Romney hasn’t been pressed on this just yet, but the story out of Southern California reminded me that Romney also has a $10 million home in New Hampshire. A little cursory searching this morning also turned up Romney’s townhouse in Belmont, Mass., and a nearby mansion, where one of Romney’s sons lives, and where Romney was registered to vote as recently as last year. There was also the $5 million ski-house in an exclusive area in Utah, but he sold it last year.
Not bad for a guy who jokes about being “unemployed.”
Just to be clear about this, there are obviously far more pressing matters in the presidential race, and I generally consider this little more than a point of curiosity on a fairly slow news day. Romney made an enormous amount of money breaking up companies and laying off thousands of American workers, so it stands to reason that he’ll purchase a luxurious residence (or in his case, several). I don’t begrudge him for doing so.
But given the way this issue affected John McCain, I wonder if this is one of those looming questions that might cause some headaches for Team Romney.
