Invested Interests: Analyzing Rep. Jeb Bradley's Portfolio

[im10ashus]

By Ken Silverstein

You'd never guess it from his conservative views and straitlaced demeanor, but second-term Republican Congressman Joseph “Jeb” Bradley of New Hampshire was quite the iconoclast as a younger man. He once lived in Switzerland and worked as a street magician, returning in 1981 to New Hampshire, where he later opened an organic grocery called Evergrain Natural Foods. Back then, according to people who knew him, Bradley had long, rock-star hair. Think Peter Frampton.

Bradley came from a very wealthy family, so it follows that making money wasn't his top priority when he was pulling rabbits out of a hat and peddling granola. But over time he put aside childish things (peace, love, carob powder), trimmed his locks, and developed a keen interest in the stock market. Exhibit one: Bradley's financial disclosure forms, which detail a stock and bond portfolio worth more than $5 million. In 2002, the year he was elected, he lived solely off his investments.

Since then Bradley has voted in a way that makes him look more like a stockholder than an elected representative. For example, he owns nearly $1 million in oil, gas and electric company stock, and has taken over $45,000 in campaign contributions from energy industry PACs. Bradley has consistently voted with energy interests since taking office, often stripping key environmental and consumer protections in the process. It's a textbook case of why there should be some financial threshold at which it becomes mandatory for members of Congress to put their wealth in blind trusts.

In 2005, Bradley backed big energy companies at least nine times. In April 2005, he voted to allow oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes, voted against requiring electric utility companies to reduce dependence on nonrenewable energy sources, and voted to weaken the review and approval process for oil refineries in areas with high unemployment rates. The following month he voted against $15.5 million in funding for energy efficiency and conservation, and he went to bat for the industry again in October, opposing a measure that would have increased fines for price gouging to three times the profits gained.

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[AX10]

1. Will the Dems use this against him?

They better.

[im10ashus]

3. The Feds should use this against him.

This is tantamount to insider trading, if you ask me. :shrug:

[indepat]

2. Almost everything almost every Repuke Congressman does is against

the public good and for the exclusive benefit of a precious few IMO.