Financial disclosures show Collins, King both worth millions

Update – this post was updated at 9:12 a.m. 5/23/13 to clarify that Tom Daffron is the chief operating officer at Jefferson Consulting Group, a defense contract lobbying firm but is not himself a registered lobbyist.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has long been both the state’s junior senator in tenure and in financial worth. Now she’s the senior senator and – thanks to her marriage – part of the millionaire’s club, though she still trails new colleague U.S. Sen. Angus King when it comes to personal wealth.

According to financial disclosure reports released Wednesday, Collins and husband Tom Daffron, who were wed in 2012, are worth between about $630,000 and $3.5 million. The range is a result of the inexact nature of the reporting requirements. Daffron is a former Senate staffer turned Tom Daffron chief operating officer at Jefferson Consulting Group, a defense contract lobbying firm. Collins also reported mortgage debts of between $500,000 and $1 million on two homes. That’s quite the leap from the reported about $250,000 Collins was worth in 2010.

Collins’ financial disclosure also revealed a few fun facts about wedding gifts she received because those worth more than $350 must be reported.

Former Sens. Bob Dole and wife Elizabeth Dole gave Collins and Daffron a $400 silver serving dish; former Department of Defense official Charles Cragin, who now works as a lobbyist with Maine Street Solutions, and his wife gifted a $550 painting; former Defense Secretary and U.S. Sen. Bill Cohen and his wife gave a $595 vase; recently retired L.L.Bean chairman Leon Gorman and his wife gave $391 worth of dishes and silverware, as did Maureen, Jim and Barbara Gorman; Dartmouth business school professor and Republican fundraiser Gregory Slayton and his wife gave a wine and picnic set worth $695; and a California couple, Meg Gerstner and Alan Glendinning, gave a grill and BBQ tools worth $450, according to the records.

Family members who give gifts above $350 do not have to be listed, according to the disclosure requirements. But since members of Congress are banned from receiving gifts worth more than $50 or that aggregate to more than $100 from one person in a year, Collins requested and received a wedding and shower gift waiver.

King and wife Mary Herman, are worth between about $5.6 million and $27 million, according to their filings. Notable on King’s disclosure forms is the income he earns from serving as a director or consultant with a variety of organizations, such as the law firm Bernstein Shur, the Bank of Maine and Hancock Lumber Company. He also earned more than $200,000 as the executor of Roger C. Kline’s estate. King stepped down from almost all of the positions he had held and earned money from in 2012.

King also is reportedly holding between $245,000 and $650,000 in debt, between mortgages and tuition payments to the University of New England and St. Lawrence University.

Click here to see a list of the 50 richest members of Congress in 2011 as calculated by Roll Call.

Rebekah Metzler

About Rebekah Metzler

Rebekah Metzler is a breaking news editor for CNN's digital politics team in Washington. Previously, she was a senior news editor with U.S. News and World Report, where she began her three-year tenure as a political writer. She spent much of 2012 on the road covering the presidential campaign in battleground states across the country. Metzler proudly tells all who will listen she hails from the great state of Maine where she covered state politics for the Lewiston Sun Journal and MaineToday Media. Metzler earned her master’s degree in journalism from Boston University and her undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College.