Whitehouse Refuses to Answer Questions on All White Club, Family is One of Largest Shareholders

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is refusing to answer questions about his membership in one of the most exclusive and all-white beach clubs in America.

Whitehouse, who disavowed his membership to Bailey’s Beach Club in Newport when he ran for the United States Senate in 2006, uses the club frequently and his ownership -- via his wife -- is one of the largest shareholders in the private, not-for-profit.

SEE VIDEO OF VISIT TO SENATOR WHITEHOUSE'S OFFICE

Best known as Bailey’s, the legal name of the club is the "Spouting Rock Beach Association".

According to SRBA documents secured by GoLocal, the Senator’s wife is listed on membership rolls as "Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse" — and listed as owning 25 shares in the club. Most members, who include some of the wealthiest and most influential in America, own five or ten shares in Bailey’s.

Starting last week, over the weekend, and visiting his office on Tuesday, GoLocal has repeatedly sought comment from Whitehouse. At his office on Tuesday, News Editor Kate Nagle was instructed to contact Washington, D.C. press secretary Caleb Gibson. According to Rele Abiade, the Deputy State Director of Whitehouse — Gibson would respond, “that’s protocol.”

After GoLocal reached out to Gibson in the Washington office with questions, he emailed back a few hours later that, “I’m sorry I’m not going to be able to get you anything on that.” GoLocal had sent a half dozen questions asking for clarification on Whitehouse’s previous claims and the families continued and significant role in Bailey's.

One of America's Most Exclusive and Secretive Clubs

For the Whitehouses, the membership in the club goes back generations on both sides of the marriage. Their parents, both of them, and their children summered at the ultra exclusive club and had access to socializing and building contacts with the some of the wealthiest families whose ranks include multiple billionaires.

“The ritual of brunch at Bailey's Beach, a private club where the oldest Newport families still come to be rich and thin together, is an ancestral and vaguely incestuous mosh pit,” wrote Tom Austin in a feature about the club in 2009 for Travel + Leisure.

“Save for the cutting wire of class, no fence separates the public from one of America's most exclusive and secretive clubs, a very private enclave of WASP aristocracy,” added Austin.

GoLocal will continue to follow this story and seek comment from Whitehouse.

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