WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Sometimes back-to-back, usually within the same two-minute window of advertising, voters here get treated to the same type of brutal attack ad, from both parties.
Republicans are running ads attacking former congresswoman Elaine Luria over stock trades she made during her two terms in the House, saying “something is fishy” about the Democrat’s wealth. They often roll right into an ad from Democrats bashing Republican Rep. Rob Wittman in the neighboring southeast Virginia district for trading stocks in companies he “may have had confidential information about.”
It’s become the sleeper issue of the election cycle, with accusations flying from both parties that lawmakers are using inside information to buy and sell stocks to pad their personal wealth. So much so that Senate Republicans, with some of their own facing similar lines of attack, rushed a vote Wednesday on legislation that would ban stock trades by members of Congress.
Republican leaders knew that the legislation was not fully baked and did not have nearly enough support, so they tacked on some conservative election law provisions that ensured Democrats would oppose the bill.
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The final vote tally — all 53 Republicans voting yes, while all 47 members of the Democratic caucus voted to block the measure — came as expected. Out on the campaign trail, Republicans now hope to blame Democrats for allowing members to trade stocks, an issue that started to percolate about five years ago but now has hit a full boil with the voting public.
“Americans have a low opinion of us as members of Congress, whether the House or the Senate, especially in keeping the inside information we have separate from our financials,” Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, whose family wealth is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, told The Washington Sun. “This bill is designed to restore that faith.”
Ricketts is facing an unusually strong reelection challenge in Nebraska. Independent Dan Osborn has repeatedly accused Ricketts of making millions in the stock market while serving in Congress, a recurring theme the challenger hit on during a debate in early September.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune previewed Republicans’ line of attack on Tuesday when asked if the vote could make the difference for Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a vulnerable incumbent who has been attacked by his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Mary Peltola, for being one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress.
“It makes it pretty hard for Democrats to make that argument,” Thune said of Democrats’ campaign messaging on stock trading, though he also pointed to failed data center legislation. “These are both, as I said, broadly bipartisan bills that have passed the House with huge majorities, all of which get at the issues that the Democrats seem to find able to use in their campaigns.”
Thirteen Democrats voted for the stock bill in the House.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) slammed Republicans for including voter identification provisions in the bill, saying that it was designed as a political ploy. But Schatz told The Sun he is not worried about the potential ramifications of the vote.
“There are no votes on the way out of town that are going to shift public opinion,” Schatz said of Republicans’ moves. “I’m not very worried that suddenly people are going to think that prices are coming down, or that they’ve been focused on regular people all this time because they’ve done a couple of moves to try to get it right.”
Ricketts batted down accusations that those voter provisions were specifically included for political reasons. He added that he would be willing to work with Democratic leadership on a new version of the bill –– but only after November.
“Thirty-six states have streamlined voter ID, including many blue states,” Ricketts said. “But I’ll certainly work with leadership with regard to where to go from here if this vote fails.”
The stock bill was one of several votes Republicans held this week that had a sharp political message behind them, including one designed to help local governments deal with energy prices from data centers. It also got blocked by Democrats.
In House and Senate races across the nation, accusations of corruption have been a focal point in campaign ads. But the issue of individual lawmakers trading stocks has become particularly potent, according to campaign operatives in both parties.
A 2012 law requires lawmakers to reveal, in a timely manner, purchases or sales that they make in publicly traded stocks, in addition to a broad financial disclosure form they must file on an annual basis that includes data such as real estate holdings and spousal income.
Since just last summer almost 40 members of the House and Senate have violated the timing requirements of that law, filing their disclosure forms on stock trades later than the mandate, according to a review by The Sun.
These filings have proven to be great fodder for opposition researchers in both parties.
In New Jersey, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. took several months off the daily work of Congress and went into in-patient therapy for depression. Yet Kean’s financial adviser continued to make stock trades for the congressman even while he was not able to work, drawing charges of being “one of [the] most prolific traders” in Congress in a debate this week.
In northeast Pennsylvania, Democrats have pummeled first-term Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pennsylvania) for campaigning two years ago on the “sickening” idea that lawmakers would make big money, only to then turn into a prolific stock trader himself. According to a Sun analysis, he made 650 trades last year, before The Sun tracked how that volume decreased as he entered the election season.
Most lawmakers feel that these charges are grossly exaggerated and that they use financial advisers to handle their investments, dismissing the idea that they are sitting behind their desks on Capitol Hill getting tips and buying and selling stocks.
Many lawmakers start blind trusts or place all their financial holdings into mutual funds or other investment devices that don’t involve direct buying and selling.
But those defenses sometimes get dismissed by an angry public that despises Congress, giving political operatives a chance to pick and choose the timing of these sales to raise questions about a lawmaker’s ethics.
Any trades happening right around the time of a big congressional vote can get turned into a very potent ad.
Dozens of these ads are running across the nation, but the Norfolk, Virginia, media market might represent political ground zero for the barrage of stock-trading ads, as each party looks to use the issue in two critical battlegrounds that could determine the House majority.
“Rob Wittman has only served himself,” a retired U.S. Marshal says in an ad run by the House Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with Democratic leaders.
An image on the screen says the 19-year incumbent Republican’s personal wealth is “now worth up to $7.6 million,” accusing him of supporting policies that raised prices on everyday Virginians.
Wittman also says that a financial adviser handles his stock trading. He posted on his campaign website a section explaining that, while he has made lots of trades, he hasn’t made much money.
“Trading volume is not income. Trading volume is not profit. And trading volume is not an increase in net worth,” Wittman said.
Republicans have returned the favor in accusing Luria, trying to knock off Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia) in a rematch of their 2022 race, of making “millions” in her two terms from 2019 to 2023.
“Elaine Luria votes for massive chip subsidy legislation, holds millions in chip stocks,” the screen on the ad reads.
Another ad accused her of making $21 million in stock trades while in office, an accusation that local TV news refuted in a fact-check segment. Still, Luria’s net wealth when she left Congress was between $3.4 million and $12.9 million.
The House passed its stock-trading ban back in the summer, but most Democrats opposed the ban as toothless for not imposing the same restrictions on the president and Cabinet members.
Some lawmakers who have worked on this issue, especially those not up for reelection this year, feel that politics are driving how party leaders handle the matter, preventing them from working toward a solution that would help improve Congress’ image.
“This is one of those measures that everybody says they are for, and run on in their campaigns, Democrats and Republicans, but when it comes time to vote for it, they don’t want to,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), the author of another stock-trading proposal, told The Sun.
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