Fifth District Candidates: From Middle Class to Spectacularly Wealthy

Chris Donovan, one of the seven candidates vying for the Fifth District Congressional seat, earned about $26,000 in the first four months of this year, and his two most-valuable assets were a credit-union account and a mutual fund, each worth somewhere between $15,000 and $50,000.

Meanwhile, fellow candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley was paid an even $200,000 in the first half of the year through one of her many successful healthcare companies, and among the more than 100 assorted assets held by her and her spouse and dependent children, more than a dozen are valued at between $5 million and $25 million each.

That range in wealth is captured in financial disclosure statements that candidates for Congress are required to file with the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives – which then makes them curiously difficult for the public to access. Forms filed by members of the House are now available online, but for candidates, the forms exist only on paper, maintained in an office in Washington, D.C., with hard copies sent by mail to election officials in each of the 50 states – though it appears some get lost in the process.

Below are the most recently filed personal financial disclosure forms for five of the seven candidates in the Fifth District – Democrats Donovan, Elizabeth Esty and Dan Roberti; and Republicans Wilson-Foley and Mark Greenberg – as retrieved from the State Elections Enforcement Commission. All were filed in 2012, with the exception of Roberti’s, which is from 2011. Roberti obtained an extension of the filing deadline for this year, which he said was related to his divestment of interests in companies run by his father, a prominent Washington lobbyist.

The elections commission did not have disclosure statements for the other two candidates in the race, Republicans Justin Bernier and Andrew Roraback, but both men say the forms were filed with the House Clerk in Washington. Each said they would attempt to locate and provide the form. In the meantime, we’ve included the Statement of Financial Interest that Roraback, as a state legislator, filed with the Office of State Ethics this year.

So give a look at the detailed financials of those running for office, from the half-million dollars Esty keeps in a joint bank account, to Greenberg’s position as an officer or member of 38 different enterprises to 30-year-old Dan Roberti’s lingering (as of August 2011) $10,000 to $15,000 student loan.