Furthermore, the spouses of senators who have assets worth more than $1.0 million arent required to state all assets on financial disclosure reports. [180], In February 2019, Blumenthal and 22 other Democratic senators introduced the State Public Option Act, a bill that would authorize states to form a Medicaid buy-in program for all residents and thereby grant all denizens of the state the ability to buy into a state-driven Medicaid health insurance plan if they wished. The Blumenthals have a property in Connecticut, which is the only residence listed under their name. Trump dubbed Blumenthal "Da Nang Richard," a reference to a battleground in the Vietnam War. Cynthia Malkin. It will increase the power and profits of transmission operators with an immediate $40million price tag for consumers. The bill would also codify Trump's executive order from the previous May that empowered his administration to block foreign tech companies deemed a national security threat from conducting business in the United States. I own no individual stock. As the chief federal prosecutor of that state, he successfully prosecuted many major cases involving drug traffickers, organized crime, white collar criminals, civil rights violators, consumer fraud, and environmental pollution. [104] On February 2, 2009, Blumenthal announced he would forgo a gubernatorial run and seek reelection that year as attorney general. [143], In 2019, following the Federal Communications Commission's announcement of rules changes to children's programming by modifying the Children's Television Act of 1990, Blumenthal and eight other Democratic senators signed a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that expressed concern that the proposed changes "would limit the reach of educational content available to children and have a particular damaging effect on youth in low-income and minority communities" and asserted that the new rules would see a reduction in access to valuable educational content through over-the-air services. However, according to the latest estimates, Blumenthal has over $42.6 million in investments, with $18.0 million in real estate assets. The senators also advocated insuring that "Lifeline reaches more Americans in need of access to communication services. Meanwhile, his salary was listed at $174,000. [118], According to a pair of Quinnipiac polls on October 15, 2015, Blumenthal had a 34-point lead over Kudlow[119] and a 35-point lead over Wolf. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider In the early 1980s he worked in private law practice, including as volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. His challenger, Republican Linda McMahon, in this new ad, reminds Connecticut voters about Blumenthal's self-aggrandizement. [166][167], In March 2019, Blumenthal and 38 other senators signed a letter to the Appropriations Committee opining that contractor workers and by extension their families "should not be penalized for a government shutdown that they did nothing to cause" while noting that there were bills in both chambers of Congress that would provide back pay to compensate contractor employees for lost wages, urging the Appropriations Committee "to include back pay for contractor employees in a supplemental appropriations bill for FY2019 or as part of the regular appropriations process for FY2020."[168]. [190], In July 2019, following reports that the Trump administration intended to end protections of spouses, parents and children of active-duty service members from deportation, Blumenthal was one of 22 senators to sign a letter led by Tammy Duckworth arguing that the program allowed service members the ability "to fight for the United States overseas and not worry that their spouse, children, or parents will be deported while they are away" and that the program's termination would cause personal hardship for service members in combat. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "Mr. Blumenthal has damaged his reputation as somebody you could. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington and her husband have both held high-level positions at Microsoft, one of the largest corporations in the world. [82], Blumenthal was co-chair, along with North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, of the State Attorney General Task Force on Social Networking. The following is an incomplete list of legislation that Blumenthal has sponsored: The American Conservative Union gave him a 3% lifetime conservative rating in 2019. Just Call Him Senator: An assessment of Richard Blumenthal, the man most likely to replace Connecticut's Christopher Dodd. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and his wife bought and sold shares of the stock trading app Robinhood while he called for Congress to investigate a controversial trading . "[96] The lawsuit demanded that Countrywide make restitution to affected borrowers, give up improper gains and rescind, reform or modify all mortgages that broke state laws. There are many elected officials with large fortunes independent of the salaries they earn while serving in Congress. "We have learned something very important since the days that I served in Vietnam," declared Blumenthal in 2008, "and you exemplify it, whatever we think about the war . Malkin is the daughter of real estate mogul Peter Malkin. Associated Press called the race as soon as polls closed. He did so after representing Joseph Green Brown, a Florida death row inmate who was found to have been wrongly convicted. The American public is beseeching us to act on commonsense, sensible gun violence prevention measures, and we must heed that call. Connecticut's share of the settlement was estimated at $3.6 billion. "[203] After the Justice Department publicly released the redacted version of the report the following month, Blumenthal said, "What's demonstrated in powerful and compelling detail in this report is nothing less than a national scandal. In 2010, Senator Blumenthal was elected to represent Connecticut in the United States Senate. [188], In June 2019, following the Housing and Urban Development Department's confirmation that DACA recipients did not meet eligibility for federal backed loans, Blumenthal and 11 other senators introduced The Home Ownership Dreamers Act, legislation that mandated that the federal government was not authorized to deny mortgage loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or the Agriculture Department solely due to an applicant's immigration status. The bill was intended to respond to the Virginia Beach shooting, where the perpetrator used a .45-caliber handgun with multiple extended magazines and a suppressor. A February poll by Rasmussen found that Blumenthal held leads of 19 against Simmons and 20 against McMahon, and that Republicans had made up little ground since the initial Rasmussen poll after Blumenthal announced. [63] Kolb later countersued, claiming the state had grossly abused its power. His net worth is largely attributed to his wife, Cynthia Malkin, whose long line of family members are influential real estate developers and property managers. His Republican opponent, Leora Levy, calls him a career. "[181], In June 2019, Blumenthal was one of eight senators to cosponsor the Territories Health Equity Act of 2019, legislation that would remove the cap on annual federal Medicaid funding and increase federal matching rate for Medicaid expenditures of territories along with more funds being provided for prescription drug coverage to low-income seniors in an attempt to equalize funding for American territories Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands with that of U.S. He earned additional incomes of $18,388 in ordinary dividends and $55,761 from pensions and annuities from the time he was Attorney General, according to the documents. Possibly because of election season, Blumenthals 2015 investments were much lower than in the past. The Wealthiest Members of CongressAnd How They Made Their Millions [60], In 2004, Blumenthal sued Computer Plus Center of East Hartford and its owner, Gina Kolb, on behalf of the state. It is also sought civil fines of up to $100,000 per violation of state banking laws, and up to $5,000 per violation of state consumer protection laws.[98]. [150], In March 2019, Blumenthal led five Democratic senators in signing a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting it "use its rulemaking authority, along with other tools, in order to combat the scourge of non-compete clauses rigging our economy against workers" and arguing that incomplete clauses "harm employees by limiting their ability to find alternate work, which leaves them with little leverage to bargain for better wages or working conditions with their immediate employer." Richard Blumenthal - Ballotpedia [71] He launched an antitrust investigation into the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA's) 2006 guidelines regarding the treatment of Lyme disease. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022.. Before his election to the Senate, Blumenthal had served . [88] He said that prostitution ads remained on the site despite previous assurances that they would be removed. The financial disclosure forms show that the Connecticut Senator's passive income is $3-$19 million per year, excluding his salary as a Senator. Blumenthal (Democratic Party, Working Families Party) ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate to represent Connecticut. DeFelice and the Maguire Group, the engineering firm that inspected the project. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., suffered a broken leg Saturday at the UConn men's championship parade in Hartford, Connecticut, and will undergo surgery . Senator AbrahamA. Ribicoff's staff as an Administrative Assistant (now known as Chief of Staff). Blumenthal argued that the Interior Department's decision in support of this action was "fatally, legally flawed, and unfair" and that "it would unfairly remove land from the tax rolls of the surrounding towns and bar local control over how the land is used, while imposing [a] tremendous burden. Here are the richest members currently serving in the House and Senate, based on their reported net worth. [115] The Cook Political Report changed its assessment of the race to Leans Democratic, making Blumenthal the favored candidate over McMahon.[116]. He was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives and later won a special election to fill a vacancy in the Connecticut Senate. His challenger, Levy, has raised $2.3 million, spent $1.9 million,. In 2003, Blumenthal and the attorneys general of eight other states (New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont) filed a federal lawsuit against the Bush administration for "endangering air quality by gutting a critical component of the federal Clean Air Act. Besides properties in Manhattan, Malkin also owns a real estate company in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He also claimed that Countrywide "crammed unconscionable legal fees into renegotiated loans, digging consumers deeper into debt" and "broke promises that homeowners could refinance, condemning them to hopelessly unaffordable loans. Blumenthal announced his 2010 run for U.S. Senate after incumbent Senator Chris Dodd announced his retirement. [31], Blumenthal was elected the 23rd Attorney General of Connecticut in 1990 and reelected in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. After Joe Lieberman retired in 2013, Blumenthal became Connecticut's senior senator. Buchanan recently came under fire for purchasing a yacht estimated to be valued between $1-5 million dollars the same day he voted for the Republican tax cuts bill in 2017. In the 1980s, Blumenthal testified in the state legislature in favor of abolishing Connecticut's death penalty statute. Connecticut Attorney General's Office (August 14, 1997). Bill cosponsor Tammy Baldwin said the bill would strengthen Buy America requirements and that she was hopeful both Democrats and Republicans would support "this effort to make sure our government is buying American products and supporting American workers. The bulk of Obernolte's fortune stems from his ownership of FarSight Studios, a video-game company in Big Bear Lake, California, that he launched in 1988. Democratic Rep. Scott Peters of California had a long career as an attorney in high-profile cases. In August 2008, Blumenthal announced that Connecticut had joined California, Illinois and Florida in suing subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial (now owned by Bank of America) for fraudulent business practices. [51], In September 1999, Blumenthal announced a lawsuit against Robin Barnes, the president and treasurer of New Haven-based charter school the Village Academy, for serious financial mismanagement of the state-subsidized charitable organization. [14] He was selected for a Fiske Fellowship, which allowed him to study at Trinity College of the University of Cambridge in England for one year after graduation from Harvard. Although Cynthia Malkins exact wealth is not known, everyone agrees that the combined wealth between her and her husband is a lot more. [169][170] As of 2010, Blumenthal had a "F" rating from the National Rifle Association for his pro-gun-control voting record. [41], On May 10, 2002, Blumenthal and Connecticut State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier helped to stop the hostile takeover of New Britain-based Stanley Works, a major Connecticut employer, by filing a lawsuit alleging that the move to reincorporate in Bermuda based on a shareholder's vote of May 9[44] was "rife with voting irregularities." "[73] The medical validity of the IDSA guidelines was not challenged,[74] and a journalist writing in Nature Medicine suggested some IDSA members may not have disclosed potential conflicts of interest,[75] while a Forbes piece described Blumenthal's investigation as "intimidation" of scientists by an elected official with close ties to Lyme advocacy groups. [120], Blumenthal was reelected with 63% of the vote against Republican state representative Dan Carter, becoming the first person in Connecticut's history to receive over a million votes in a single election. [155], In April 2019, Blumenthal was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to Trump encouraging him "to listen to members of your own Administration and reverse a decision that will damage our national security and aggravate conditions inside Central America", asserting that Trump had "consistently expressed a flawed understanding of U.S. foreign assistance" since becoming president and that he was "personally undermining efforts to promote U.S. national security and economic prosperity" by preventing the use of Fiscal Year 2018 national security funding. This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 19:21. #5. [134] After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, Blumenthal said the decision "strips women of the freedom to make their own health care decisions & puts that power in the hands of the government. [90] He said, "Craigslist has the meansand moral obligationto stop the pimping and prostituting in plain sight. [178], In January 2019, Blumenthal was one of 40 senators to introduce the Background Check Expansion Act, a bill that would require background checks for either the sale or transfer of all firearms including all unlicensed sellers. Richard Blumenthal. "[200], In June 2019, Blumenthal was one of ten senators to cosponsor the Safe Freight Act, a bill that would mandate all freight trains have one or more certified conductors and one certified engineer on board who can collaborate on how to protect both the train and people living near the tracks. Sens. The bill also abolished the restriction that stopped the federal Medicare program from using its buying power to negotiate lower drug prices for beneficiaries and hinder drug company monopoly practices used to keep prices high and disable less expensive generics entering the market. [45] On June 3 Blumenthal referred the matter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for further investigation[46] and on June 25 he testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means that "Longtime American corporations with operations in other countries can dodge tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes by the device of reincorporating in another country" by "simply [filing] incorporation papers in a country with friendly tax laws, open a post-office box and hold an annual meeting there" and that Stanley Works, along with "Cooper Industries, Seagate Technologies, Ingersoll-Rand and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, to name but a few, have also become pseudo-foreign corporations for the sole purpose of saving tax dollars." Senator Richard Blumenthal has a large real estate portfolio, thanks partly to his wife, Cynthia Malkin. His taxable income amounted to $161,373 after deductions. [198], In May 2014, days before the FCC was scheduled to rewrite its net neutrality rules, Blumenthal was one of 11 senators to sign a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler charging Wheeler's proposal with destroying net neutrality instead of preserving it and urging the FCC to "consider reclassifying Internet providers to make them more like traditional phone companies, over which the agency has clear authority to regulate more broadly. "[176], In 2018, Blumenthal was a cosponsor of the NICS Denial Notification Act,[177] legislation developed in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that would require federal authorities to inform states within a day after a person failing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System attempted to buy a firearm. Blumenthals wife files her federal tax returns separately. "This guy lied about his service," Trump said Oct. 2. [99], Blumenthal has been a vocal advocate of the scientific consensus on climate change, that human activity is responsible for rising global temperatures and that prompt action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must be taken. Blumenthal's misleading statements about his military service during Vietnam first surfaced while he was running for the Senate in 2010 when the New York Times ran a story headlined "Richard . [175], In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Blumenthal declared in an interview with Judy Woodruff, "we must break the grip of the NRA". While attorney general, Blumenthal was one of the leaders of a 46-state lawsuit against the tobacco industry, which alleged that the companies involved had deceived the public about the dangers of smoking. In 1998, the tobacco companies reached a $246 billion national settlement, giving the 46 states involved 25 years of reimbursement payments. Senator Blumenthal served an unprecedented five terms, from 1991 to 2011, as Connecticuts Attorney General, fighting for people against large and powerful special interests. [61] It was alleged that CPC overcharged $50 per computer, $500,000 in total, on a three-year, $17.2 million contract to supply computers to the state. Obernolte, who joined Congress in 2019,. However, some analysts believe Richard Blumenthals wealth could be around $85.0 million or more. The same day, Public Policy Polling released a poll they took on the two preceding evenings, including races where Blumenthal was paired against each of the three most-mentioned Republicans contending for their party's nomination for the seat. [33] The Pequot were attempting to have the land placed in a federal trust, a legal designation to provide them with land for their sovereign control, as long years of colonization had left them landless. Blumenthal's office subpoenaed MySpace for information about the number of registered sex offenders on its site. Blumenthal Bought Robinhood Shares as He Called for Congress To Blumenthal was born in Brooklyn to well-to-do parents; his father was a prominent commodities broker. [28] Blumenthal resided in Stamford, Connecticut. [125], Blumenthal worked with Senator Mark Kirk to eliminate pensions for members of Congress who are convicted of felonies while serving in office. This senator has so much money he didn't know he invested in Beijing The Blumenthals have an investment of between $100,000 and $250,000 in U.S. Shanghai LLC, according to the senator's annual financial disclosures. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is ranked among the wealthiest politicians in the U.S. "Joe Manchin is the last remaining statewide elected Democrat [in West Virginia],. With a father who fled Nazi Germany at age 18, and a mother who left Nebraska's farmland to become a social worker, Richard Blumenthal was raised with a deep dedication to public service, a duty to give back by helping others, and a bedrock belief in hard work. Much of Blumenthals beef with President Trump is decades old and stems from the Malkins and Trump being rivals in the real estate business. [32], In May 1995, Blumenthal and the state of Connecticut filed lawsuits challenging a decision by the Department of the Interior to approve a bid by the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot for annexation of 165 acres of land in the towns of Ledyard, North Stonington and Preston. 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