WASHINGTON — Four candidates running for Congress in North Carolina failed to submit required documents to the House ethics committee that would give constituents a better idea of their finances and what could influence the decisions they make in Congress.
Those candidates include Charles Graham, Scott Huffman, Tyler Lee and Pat Harrigan. None of them sent in a financial disclosure form to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics.
“The problem with candidates failing to file these financial disclosure forms is that they are asking the voters to make a decision without all the information they are entitled to have,” said Brett Kappel, an attorney focused on campaign finance, lobbying and government ethics laws.
McClatchy contacted each of the four campaigns. Graham’s team said it was looking into the situation. None of the rest provided comment.
McClatchy also contacted Christine Villaverde, who as of last week had not filed her paperwork. She did not reply, but after a reporter reached out to her campaign, she filed the report and then amended it multiple times.
During elections, voters often hear about a campaign’s fundraising and spending. But this form, a public record found on the ethics committee’s website, gives a more intimate window into a candidate’s financial habits and sometimes a foreshadowing of how they’ll vote in Congress.
That’s because the document provides voters with information about how a candidate, their spouse and their dependents earn a living, stocks they hold, certain transactions they’ve completed, liabilities against them, nongovernmental positions they have and trusts from which they benefit.
“I think if they end up being elected, it tells you where their allegiances lie,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. “I think we are too quick to think that members of Congress’ votes are bought by interest groups, but in reality, their own personal experiences and investments are a much larger influence on their voting.”
Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican representing North Carolina, found himself under scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic because of a series of stock sales made by his brother-in-law and him. He was accused of using inside information he obtained as a member of Congress to make the sale. Court documents said he did this while alluding to the public that the country’s leaders had the pandemic under control, but telling an grimmer story to others in private conversations.
Burr has not been charged with any crimes, though at least one federal investigation remains pending.
The allegations led for calls to ban members of Congress from owning stocks, but a vote hasn’t taken place to make that happen.
Kappel said if a candidate conceals information until after the election, a voter might find out, too late, that the candidate they voted for wasn’t what they portrayed themselves to be.
“And that certainly undermines confidence in Congress as a whole,” Kappel said.
All four of North Carolina’s candidates met a threshold of having raised or spent $5,000 for their campaign that triggers the requirement to file a financial disclosure form. Those forms are due immediately upon reaching that threshold.
Failing to file the forms could result in criminal penalties of up to one year in prison or a civil fine of up to $66,190, though Kappel said that rarely happens.
Cooper agreed, but he added that candidates’ failure to submit these documents already indicates a level of what voters might expect out of them in Congress.
“We’re talking about people who haven’t even been elected yet,” Cooper said. “So if they’re not following ethical standards now, why would we believe they’re going to do it when they’re in office?”
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