In VA05, Jane Dittmar Epically Bungles Personal Financial Disclosure

Now that Republicans have nominated Senator Tom Garrett, the race to replace retiring Congressman Robert Hurt in Virginia’s Fifth District has shifted to a general election matchup between the Republican Senator from Buckingham and Democrat Jane Dittmar, a one-term supervisor from Albemarle County who has declined to run again for her seat in Scottsville District.

Dittmar’s campaign to win in this R+5 district is already off to a rocky start. Despite being the presumptive Democratic nominee since January, when her only opponent, Ericke Cage dropped out of the race, Dittmar failed to take full advantage of the uncontested nominating process.

One advantage of having the clear field Dittmar has for months is the ability to raise money from large donors subject to this year’s limit of $2700 per donor, per cycle. Under federal election law, a nominating contest counts as a separate cycle, allowing large donors to contribute $2700 for the nomination, in addition to $2700 for the general. Campaigns seeking to maximize their cash position for the general use uncontested nominations as an opportunity to raise money which need not be spent immediately, giving them a solid cash cushion for the more expensive election ahead.

As of the first quarter of 2016, Dittmar raised only $89,100 from 33 maxed out donors – suggesting that her campaign may have left a substantial, six-figure amount of money on the table, unclaimed, and unavailable now that her effectively-uncontested nomination cycle has concluded and limits have reset.

As of her last report, Dittmar had only $164,408 in cash on hand, having aggressively spent half of her total receipts – mostly on campaign staff – an expenditure of limited value in the early days of a campaign where public attention has yet to fully focus on the upcoming general election.

Sub-par fundraising and expenditures aren’t the only problems with her fledgling campaign; Bearing Drift has uncovered her botched filing of the personal financial disclosure statement required of all candidates running for Congress, which lists absurd and improbably-high asset levels highly suggestive of her failing to properly read and complete the simple form. Her statement, filed with the House Clerk on December 23rd, 2015, erroneously lists her household’s net worth as exceeding a quarter of a billion dollars – or $255,001,003, to be specific.

In her filing, Dittmar lists a townhouse on Wimbledon Way (owned through her Best Years, LLC) as being worth in excess of $50,000,000 (fifty million dollars), despite county records listing the presumptive property’s assessed value at $208,700 as of the 2016 tax year.

Her filing also indicates she keeps between twenty five million and fifty million dollars in her checking account at Suntrust Bank, in addition to another twenty five to fifty million dollars in a savings account held at Wells Fargo. Savvy investors will cringe at the thought of all that capital sitting around at virtually zero return, while the risk-averse will recoil in horror at the amounts held in excess of the FDIC’s $250,000 per depositor, per institution limit on federal deposit insurance.

Also listed are a trio of 529 college savings plans, two valued each in excess of fifty million dollars, and one valued between twenty five million and fifty million dollars, alongside two IRAs each valued in excess of fifty million dollars, in addition to another valued between twenty five and fifty million dollars. Rounding out the list of hilariously poor accounting is a life insurance policy also listed with a value exceeding fifty million dollars.

Obviously, Dittmar has severely bungled this simple filing, checking boxes normally reserved for astronomically-high levels of household assets.

The spurious listings are contained within Schedule A of her personal financial disclosure statement, excerpted below. To zoom in, please view the full PDF filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

The astronomically-high valuation ranges can be better seen in page five of the original form, as the one filed by Dittmar suffers from poor resolution, having been scanned.

Obviously, the Dittmar household isn’t worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars – though such an egregious failure in financial accounting would prepare her for a warm welcome from her would-be colleagues within the tax-and-spend House Democratic Caucus.

In Washington, though, a misplaced quarter of a billion dollars is little more than a rounding error. In an era where too many bills are voted upon without being fully read and understood, Dittmar’s inability to read and complete a simple form according to straightforward instructions does not speak well of her attention to detail – or lack thereof, as the case appears to be.

Dittmar will need to file an amended personal financial disclosure form – hopefully, this time, one which is based in reality and conforms with the simple instructions provided.