WASHINGTON – All but one candidate for the GOP Senate nomination have blown by a deadline for disclosing their income and financial holdings.
Marlin Stutzman, one of five contenders for his party’s nod, filed the required form, but the others have not. Their reports are 10 days overdue.
Dan Coats’ campaign press secretary, Pete Seat, said an adviser gave Coats wrong information about the deadline and that Coats will request an extension “soon.”
But Senate ethics rules say that “an extension granted to a candidate is ineffective past the date such extension will result in a report being filed later than 30 days prior to an election.”
Indiana’s primary is May 4; congressional candidates’ financial disclosure reports were due April 4.
Don Bates said Wednesday he “totally forgot about it. … It’s been sitting on my desk.”
He said he would file the report promptly.
Carl Little, a spokesman for John Hostettler’s campaign, said Hostettler wasn’t aware until Tuesday that he had missed the deadline and would file the report “ASAP.”
Little said Hostettler described himself as in “House of Representatives mode,” meaning that the disclosure forms House members must fill out are mailed to them. He said the Senate did not mail Hostettler a form.
Richard Behney said he was unaware of the requirement until a reporter asked him about it.
“We’re new to the campaign thing,” Behney said, adding that he would fulfill the requirement when he investigates what he has to do.
Candidates and members of Congress are required to file annual financial statements listing their assets, income from those assets, the gifts they received, their debts and other financial information.
Incumbent senators file reports on May 15. Candidates must provide the same information for the previous year as well as the information up to the date of the filing.
So the five Republican Senate contenders will be required to reveal the sources of their income from Jan. 1, 2009, through the date they file the report.
Democrats have been critical of Coats’ failure to meet the deadline because they say it hides information about his income from lobbying.
Since he retired from the Senate in 1998, Coats has been a Washington-based lobbyist except for a period when he was President George W. Bush’s envoy to Germany.
In the last financial disclosure report he filed as a senator, Coats reported as much as $199,500 in outside income. The report covered 1997.
He listed assets worth between $1 million and $2.8 million; the Senate allows filers to categorize income and asset value in broad ranges.
That year, Coats owned or sold stock in MCI Communications Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Silverleaf Resorts, Sequent Computer Systems, Alternative Living Services, LCI International, Volvo, Perrigo Co., Lucandia Nautical, Vitalink Pharmacy, American Home Products Corp., Motorola, Atria Communities, AURA Systems, Bancorp, Western Bancorp Amway Asia Pacific, Grancare Inc. and Paragon Health Network.
Members of Congress were paid $133,600 in 1997.
The penalty for failing to file the report is a maximum of $50,000. A spokesman for the Senate Ethics Committee said smaller fines are sometimes imposed but that information is kept secret.
Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-8th, the likely Democratic Senate nominee, is not covered by the reporting requirement for Senate candidates, but he is required to file a disclosure report with the House on May 15.
House candidates have the same filing requirement for the same type of information. Phil Troyer, one of three Republicans running to unseat Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, filed his report.
Bob Thomas, another Souder challenger, has not. He said he got verbal permission to file late.
“If you look at the instruction booklet,” he wrote in an e-mail, “you will notice that you get an automatic extension (some confusion as to whether or not a $200 late fee is required) for up to 30 days.”
The rules state an extension may be granted, but “in no event will an extension be granted which authorizes a candidate’s report to be filed later than 30 days prior to a primary.”
Jason Kingsbury, campaign manager for Democrat Tom Hayhurst, said he and the campaign treasurer had misread the rules and thought the report was due May 15. Told of the actual due date – April 4, Kingsbury said the disclosure report would be filed within a few days.
