New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli and several Republican groups have slammed Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), the Democratic nominee, in recent days over the surge in her net worth while serving in Congress.
“In the several years that she’s been in Congress, she’s tripled her net worth,” Ciattarelli, the Republican contender for Garden State governor, claimed during Sunday’s debate against Sherrill.
The Republican Party’s official X account continued the line of attack on Monday, accusing Sherrill of having “raked in over $7 MILLION from stock trades while in Congress.”
Since the debate, the Republican Governors Association and other GOP-aligned groups have also highlighted Sherrill’s stammering response to questions from radio host Charlamagne tha God about her explosion in net worth
“I, I haven’t, I don’t believe I did, but I’d have to go see what that was alluding to,” the congresswoman told “The Breakfast Club” host when asked about a report on her purported $7 million gains from stock trading.
“I, I, uh, also don’t trade individual stocks,” Sherrill continued. “It’s been widely reported. I’ve, uh, I, my husband doesn’t trade, we don’t trade individual stocks.”
Sherrill, who makes an annual salary of $174,000 representing New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, reported assets totaling between $733,209 and $4,321,000 in her 2019 financial disclosure, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Her latest disclosure – which was filed in August and includes comments from Sherrill indicating the exact value of her and her husband’s assets – shows the gubernatorial candidate’s net worth grew to $11,321,863.
That’s a $7 million increase from the upper bound value of her assets in 2019.
Sherrill’s reported wealth grew partly because she purchased a Washington, DC residence in 2021, which she rents to her roommate, Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.
Unlike personal residences, the estimated value of rental properties must be disclosed by lawmakers and Sherrill’s is valued at just over $1.5 million.
Sherrill did disclose numerous stock trades in her latest filing, but they all appear to be related to her investment banker husband’s compensation package.
Unusual Whales and Quiver Quantitative – groups that track congressional stock trading – show Sherrill and her husband, UBS executive Jason Hedberg, have sold UBS stock every year since the congresswoman took office in 2019.
In each transaction, of which there are several, between $50,001 and $500,000 of UBS stock has been sold.
Sherrill was fined $400 in 2021 for failing to disclose up to $350,000 in UBS stock sales within the 45-day window required by the federal STOCK Act.
“These two transactions were the sale of vested stock earned by Rep. Sherrill’s husband as part of his employment compensation,” a Sherrill spokesperson told Business Insider at the time.
Sherrill and Hedberg previously sold their entire stock portfolio in early 2020, just before and at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and replaced their holdings with the same value in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which act like mutual funds, according to the New Jersey Globe.
The move was characterized by the outlet as an effort at preventing “any appearance of conflict,” but has been framed by others as Sherrill profiting from her insider knowledge as a congresswoman.
Sherrill has a commanding 8.8 percentage-point lead over Ciattarelli, a former Garden State assemblyman, in polls so far, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.
Only one known poll has the GOPer up, an outlier internal survey commissioned by Ciattarelli’s campaign, which pegs him in the lead 46% to 45%.
Sherrill’s campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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