CAROLINE'S CRIB - SEN. HOPEFUL'S $50M SPREAD
By CHUCK BENNETT
December 29, 2008
Forget Chappaqua.
This amazing Martha's Vineyard spread will be the next home-away-from-the-Beltway for New York's junior senator if Caroline Kennedy is tapped to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The 366-acre estate - worth at least $50 million - just underwent a major renovation and rezoning that will keep it the exclusive province of Kennedy, 51.
It's also the spot where she got her first call to public service, six years before she launched her campaign for Hillary Clinton's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.
In 2002, her houseguest, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, reportedly floated the idea of her coming on board the city's Department of Education as a fund-raiser.
Kennedy and her advocates have been relentlessly touting that two-year stint as qualifying her to be senator.
And the property, which mom Jackie Onassis purchased for $1.1 million in 1978, will make a perfect place for the senatorial hopeful to stealthily engage in political horse-trading as the manse can't be seen from either the beach or the edge of its 2,000-foot-long driveway.
When a little R&R is in order, there's 4,620 feet of oceanfront to play on.
The Kennedys just finished converting the 31 lots of land that make up the property into just seven with deed restrictions that limit subdivisions and development.
Five of the seven plots are for Caroline and her children, with the remaining two open to "non-Kennedys" if they ever decide to sell.
Money, however, will never be a worry. Caroline Kennedy's personal fortune could exceed $400 million, according to C. David Heymann, author of "American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy."
She's the beneficiary of a massive trust fund established by clan patriarch Joseph Kennedy.
This article also reminds us that Caroline's fabled career in "public service" consists mostly of having once said "oh, um, sure, you know…" to a house guest.
It also reminds us that her trust fund was set up by Joseph Kennedy, whom some say managed things so that none of the children would ever have to pay taxes again.
Which may account for her refusal to disclose her finances until after she is "selected" Senator.
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