Steve Forbes' Skeleton Closet
Click on the allegation of your choice:
"My father once spent $5 million on a birthday party for himself in Tangiers. Why can't I spend a few more running for President?" -- Steve Forbes
"I am a male. I am white, a Protestant, an Ivy Leaguer, rich, business-oriented, without practical political experience. It couldn't be worse, but at least I'd like to be free to fall down on my own arse, without any help from conservatives." -- Steve Forbes
"Nobody wants to get chased down the street by a mad billionaire with a squash racket." -- Alex Castellanos (Phil Gramm's media adviser)
"In their late 40s, Forbes mens' hormones seem to change. Pop started riding motorcycles. I would say running for president qualifies." -- Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes, now 48, began working for his father's magazine at age 22, and has been living on the family homestead since 24. He inherited Forbes Magazine and now pays himself over $1.2 million per year. He has never had to work for anyone -- except Dad -- in his life.
Father Malcolm was a showman who knew to to make money (off his celebrity and aura of wealthy) by very publicly spending money, riding balloons and motorcycles, collecting Faberge eggs and throwing a famous 70th birthday party with 600 belly dancers, 200 Berber horsemen, three jets to bring guests, and pal Elizabeth Taylor in attendance. Less publicly, he was widely rumored to be having homosexual affairs in his later years. (His wife divorced him in 1985.) In fact, a young man named George Warnock, claiming to have slept with Malcolm Forbes, has written allegedly blackmailing letters to Malcolm, and more recently, Steve. Steve Forbes confirms that he received such a letter. (Warnock was sentenced to a year in prison for extortion.)
No job requires management skills more than the presidency. But at the only two positions where Steve has managed people, his efforts have been controversial at best.
His main experience, of course, has been running Forbes Magazine. (His brother has taken over for now while Steve runs for office.) He increased the number of ad pages at Forbes past competitors such as Fortune, through deep discounts and aggressive salesmanship. However, in 1992, a magazine article charged that Forbes Magazine was actually losing money, a charge that Steve denied. Since then, everyone agrees that Forbes Magazine is the industry leader in ad sales -- in fact it sells more ad pages (4,500) than any other magazine in the world. On the other hand, Fortune Magazine (which sells 3,200 pages a year and is "very profitable") charges in a new article charges that Forbes got those ads with a policy of not printing bad news about companies that advertise. They document several stories that Forbes or his publisher rewrote or killed to avoid offending big advertisers. That doesn't bode well for his independence from the influence of big money interests.
Forbes also fired his secretary of 13 years, Ann Barton, just before her 65th birthday, and has written editorials in favor of allowing forced retirement at that age. When she sued him for age discrimination, he responded viciously, giving a long deposition attacking her competence and attitude, even though she had been his personal secretary for 13 years. When the judge ruled against him in a preliminary hearing, he settled out of court. This isn't a big scandal, as some of the press implies, but it shows a heavy hand in managing people. His mean streak also shows in his choice of campaign staffers -- notably Carter Wrenn and Tom Ellis, two men behind years of Jesse Helms' most vicious campaigns until Wrenn fell out with Helms in 1994. Forbes' heavily negative campaign ads show their strong influence.
Steve's other managerial experience was in the mid-80s, when his Republican connections got him appointed head of the board that oversaw Radio Free Europe. According to an inspector general's report cited in Newsweek, the agency was "rife with uncontrolled spending and lax management." Forbes claims that real spending was reduced, but Bob Dole remembers that Forbes "was always coming and asking me for money [for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.]
Forbes claims he isn't beholden to money interests because he has so much. Think again. He has already started hosting $1,000 a plate fundraisers for big money supporters: one meeting alone (at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel) raised $1.2 million, and he has as many as 15 more planned, according to Time reporter Richard Lacayo. At a million dollars each, they would pay back every penny he's put into the campaign.
That's right, pay him back. Unlike Ross Perot, Steve Forbes has not actually contributed a penny to his campaign. He is LENDING his campaign money, so that if he is elected or comes close enough to have clout, various big money interests can pay him back. And they've already begun. After all, he's an expert at wheedling and cajoling the wealthy for money, as his ad page sales prove.
Forbes is already waffling on the issues. In the 1980s, he attacked proposals to crack down on illegal immigrants by sanctioning employers who hired them. "An important portion of this country's prosperity is now dependent on illegals," he wrote. Now that the public mood has shifted, he has made cracking down on immigrants a big campaign issue.
He also repeatedly opposed a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, and in fact never felt a balanced budget was as important as lowering taxes. But in December 1995, as his campaign began to get attention, he came out in favor of a balanced budget amendment.
Forbes Inc. has a land development branch that owns 4 developments -- three in Colorado, and one called Land Of The Ozarks in Warsaw, Missouri -- about 150 miles from the Whitewater development. The land business was started by Steve's father Malcom in 1971 and has advertised in the magazine since, with ads making pitches like "own your own ranch in the Colorado Rockies."
The problem is, buyers DON'T really own the land. Forbes, Inc. uses a largely discredited form of contract called the "installment contract for deed." Purchasers buy their land on a contract that only gives them the deed after 10 years of payments - and heft interest charges. What that means is, if they miss even one payment, Forbes can (and does) take it back without any need for foreclosure proceedings. And if the person wants to sell the land before 10 years is up? Too bad. At least 237 buyers missed payments and lost their property back to Forbes. To settle a lawsuit, Forbes eventually refunded the money paid in by all 237.
That isn't the only problem with the land developments. Another large group, who actually completed their contracts, is suing over the annual $216,000 in fees that just one of the developments - Forbes Park - charges its residents. And others who have moved onto their land complain that rules for garbage disposal and maintenance aren't enforced, so that ruins of half-built homes and outhouses litter the development.
A group drove down to a Steve Forbes campaign rally in Colorado last year, and gave him a letter detailing their complaints. No agreement has been reached and they are planning a lawsuit.
Very, Very Rich. Steve is worth AT LEAST $439 million, according to Fortune Magazine, and is heir to a fortune of perhaps $1.4 billion. He owns an island in Fiji, a Boeing 727, a chateau in France and of course a major league yacht.
This gives him major advantages as a candidate. Not only does it free him from the frantic money begging of Dole, Gramm, Alexander and Lugar, but he is also free of the spending limits they agreed to in order to get federal matching funds. Those limits prevent them from spending more than the limit in each state, including New Hampshire and Iowa which have disproportionate impact. Forbes has already spent more than the limit in each, and will spend much more by the time each picks its delegates.
Forbes has already spent several million, at least $15 million according to his staff, and may spend as much as $35 million total in the primaries.
Forbes has gained a lot of attention with his radical flat tax proposal. He would also gain about $200,000 a year in tax savings if the plan passed.
Why? Because the story listed Caspar Weinberg, Chairman of Forbes and one of Steve Forbes' friends, as one of several Republicans who keep chunks of money in Swiss Bank Accounts -- just like Vincent Foster. With Forbes about to run for President, the theory goes, this was too hot to publish in his own magazine. If you like this kind of stuff, you can read the actual article, which was published in the August 1995 issue of Media Bypass.
"Forbes' Candidacy Appeals to Bankers", American Banker, September 29, 1995 p3
"Richie Rich On the Stump", Newsweek, July 24, 1995 p47
"What Makes Steve Run?", Jeanie Russel Kasindorf, Fortune, February 5, 1996
"Forbes: Dropping Big Bucks in IA", The Hotline, December 12, 1995
"White House '96: Forbes", The Hotline, December 12, 1995
"Forbes: It Must Have Been A Fourth-Rate Burglary", The Hotline, November 27, 1995
"Top Hat In the Ring: Steve Forbes, Millionaire Son of Malcolm", Time, September 29, 1995 p35
"Steve Forbes: If Dollars Were Votes", Business Week, October 9, 1995 p36
"Hey Jude: Steve Forbes, GOP Savior?", Ruth Shalit, New Republic, July 3, 1995 p14
"Steve Forbes: Front and Right", National Review, October 23, 1995 p67
"Forbes Is Profitable", MediaWeek, January 6, 1992 p5
"A Brass Knuckled Gentleman", Richard Stengel, Time, December 4, 1995
"Insiders Running Outside", Paul Kaihla, Maclean's Magazine, October 2, 1995 p30
"Forbes Record Is In His Writings", Ronald Brownstein, LA Times News Service, The Record, January 25, 1996 pA18
"Buying Power", Howard Fineman and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, January 29, 1996 p21
"Knock 'Em Flat", Nancy Gibbs, and "Rich Man's Game", Richard Lacayo, Time, January 29, 1996 p22
"Forbes Settled Bias Suit Before Start of Candidacy", Douglas Frantz, The New York Times, January 28, 1996
Paid for by Real People For Real Change PAC and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Real People For Real Change is registered with the Federal Election Commission as a non-affiliated, independent political action committee.