A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Home » Indiana Lawmakers’ finances

Indiana Lawmakers’ finances

by 15 Comments

The Indy Star has a run down of Indiana lawmakers’ finances (h/t Tippecanoe Politics) .

Items of note:

  • Senator Lugar gets about $30,000 in social security benefits on top of his Senate salary of $162,000 per year and various other sources of income and has a million dollar home in Virginia.
  • Senator Bayh’s wife’s income is not disclosed, though she apparently works on nine corporate boards. Senator Bayh owns a $1.8 million “beach house” in Delaware.
  • Rep. Visclosky – nothing really jumps out.
  • Chris Chocola – Outside income includes “between $714,218 and $4 million in dividends, capital gains, interest, and rent.” (First, that’s quite a range; second, how do I get a piece of that action?). His major assets are estimated as being between $12.2 million and $35.7 million, including property in Michigan worth a couple million.
  • Mark Souder – His major assets include a partnership in his family business, “Historic Souders of Grabill” which is apparently worth a couple hundred thousand.
  • Steve Buyer – Nothing really stands out other than that his Monticello Law Office is estimated to be worth $100,000 to $250,000 and has a mortgage of “between $15,000 and $50,000”. I wonder if 1) that law office is the same thing as his Congressional Office across from the courthouse; 2) whether the fact of that being his Congressional Office helps him pay his mortage; and 3) whether these things explain why he hasn’t moved the office to Lafayette or somewhere more central to his Congressional District despite some bellyaching from constituents about the remoteness of his Monticello office.
  • Dan Burton – $1.8 to $3.7 million in assets, including properties in Indiana, California, and Kentucky.
  • Mike Pence – Won $250 in a golf tournament.
  • Julia Carson – did not report the amount of her outside income. Has between $17,000 and $80,000 in major assets.
  • John Hostettler – Stock in Boeing, Exxon, GE, IBM and Bristol Myers worth between $6,000 and $106,000. Credit card debt between $45,000 and $150,000.
  • Mike Sodrel – Income from between $1.1 million to $5.25 million from his transportation company. His wife remains a “secretary” for the company. His major assets range between $6.4 million to $27 million, mostly in his trucking company. He has a bank note between $500,000 and $1 million.

    So, I’d put their net worth in the following order:

    1. Chocola – wealthy
    2. Sodrel – wealthy
    3. Bayh – rich
    4. Lugar – rich
    5. Burton – rich
    6. Visclosky – well off
    7. Buyer – well off
    8. Souder – well off
    9. Pence – modest
    10. Carson – modest
    11. Hostettler – in trouble

    • Comments

    1. Tippecanoe Politics says

      I’m not implying anything at this point. But I wanted to let you know what I’ve learned ‎so far.‎

      According to Buyer’s House website, Buyer’s Congressional Office is located at 100 S. ‎Main Street. According to Buyer’s financial discloser form, his law office is located at ‎‎103 W Broadway St. Two different locations, right? Well, I wanted to make sure. When I ‎entered 103 W Broadway St into Mapquest, it said the address didn’t exist. When I ‎entered it into Google, it puts it in the same location as 100 Main Street, (really really close)

      According to Buyer’s 2006 financial discloser form, Buyer made between $5,001 and ‎‎$15,000 in rent off his law office. ‎

      All I can do at this point is report the facts and let you draw your own conclusions. I’ll ‎see if I can come up with some more information within the next couple of days.‎

      Reply

    3. Doug says

      I know Rep. Buyer’s Congressional office (100 S. Main) is on the southwest corner of Main & Broadway with the White County Building (110 North Main) directly across Broadway to the north, and I know the Law Offices of Brad Woolley (103 E. Broadway Street)(among others) are directly across Main Street to the east.

      Reply

    4. Tippecanoepolitics says

      I decided, in light of everything, to take a trip to Monticello. Here’s what I found out:

      103 West Broadway is defiantly NOT Steve Buyer’s Congressional Office. 103 West Broadway is “Cox and Company Certified Public Accountants.” 101 West Broadway, next door to the congressional office, is “Where Framing is an Art.”

      However, the buildings are connected. Thus, I don’t know how much Steve Buyer owns. He may or may not own the whole thing. In order to find out if Steve Buyer is paying himself rent or even owns the entire building, I would probably have to file a freedom of information request or do some more investigation. Because of my current status and because I don’t have time to investigate, I’m not going to follow up on this anymore.

      Reply

    5. Doug says

      Wow, actual leg work. Very impressive. Probably would’ve been easier just to have me do a drive by though. I live about 1.5 miles away from Buyer’s Congressional office.

      Reply

    7. Dustin Blythe says

      Honestly I thought that Chocola was worth more like $50 million. Maybe he is, counting those dividends. Hard to imagine how someone that wealthy can relate to the troubles of middle and lower income people in the district. Probably as well as the suits in D.C. related to the flood victims in New Orleans after Katrina. As Barack Obama put it, “it is as though the people in D.C. who were in charge of emergency management could not comprehend that there were people in that area (N.O.) that were not able to put $100 worth of gas into their SUV, drive 100 miles north, and charge a hotel room to their credit card.”

      Reply

    9. joeyd says

      To me the real issue in the news article about congressional wealth is Hostettler’s credit card debt. What kind of fool goes into debt at that amount at such high interest rates…..with that kind of financial management judgement (on top of his other questionable judgement on most things policy, one might hope that his time of Congress may be coming to a close….

      Reply

    12. Paul says

      Regarding Hostettler’s credit card debt, it is a little odd that he keep a modest, but fairly diverse, portfolio of large cap stocks (Boeing, Exxon, GE, IBM and Bristol Myers) worth between $6,000 and $106,000. The average returns from such a group would be far less than interest payments due on credit card debt.

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. […] All is fair in love, war, and politics, I suppose; but I don’t think this is wise strategy by the Chocola campaign. I think the public is going to identify with a guy like Donnelly who gets his bills paid even if he has to juggle a little and pay things late on occasion, particularly if those bills are something like the much-hated property tax. Certainly, those sorts of every day struggles are more familiar to voters than the lifestyle of the ultra-rich Chocola who is worth 10s of millions of dollars, according to public records. This entry is filed under IN-02. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply […]

      Reply

    2. […] All is fair in love, war, and politics, I suppose; but I don’t think this is wise strategy by the Chocola campaign. I think the public is going to identify with a guy like Donnelly who gets his bills paid even if he has to juggle a little and pay things late on occasion, particularly if those bills are something like the much-hated property tax. Certainly, those sorts of every day struggles are more familiar to voters than the lifestyle of the ultra-rich Chocola who is worth 10s of millions of dollars, according to public records. This entry is filed under IN-02. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply […]

      Reply

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *