Julia Letlow won’t have smooth sailing in her Senate race
She's an attractive but untested candidate, and opponents will 'go negative'
(Jan. 21) Rep. Julia Letlow of Baton Rouge has entered this year’s U.S. Senate race with the momentum of an endorsement from President Donald Trump, but only after copping to a financial anomaly that her opponents are sure to exploit.
Two interesting questions arise. First, by the time of the May 16 primary, will Trump’s endorsement be as much of a boon as most people assume? Second, will any of her three most prominent likely opponents — incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, state Treasurer John Fleming or state Sen. Blake Miguez— attack her, and how strongly, for her longstanding failure to comply with an important financial disclosure law?
Let’s take the latter question first. On Jan. 13, Letlow disclosed that she previously had failed to report more than 200 stock and bond trades as required by a law called the STOCK Act. She had to amend all five of her annual financial disclosures going back to 2020.
On the surface, the failure to report looks either like gross negligence or like dishonest obfuscation, especially since the trades involve so much money (somewhere between $225,000 and $3.3 million) and because they involve companies, such as Alphabet, Amazon, Chevron and key health care companies, which are clearly drawing congressional lawmaking attention.
Digging deeper, Letlow’s explanation looks plausible and a lot more innocent: Her investment portfolio is managed by an investment advisor, which shifted funds in the account into individual stocks and bonds without realizing it would trigger new reporting requirements. Anyone who outsources direct management of investment accounts to financial advisors can understand how that can happen.
On the other hand, the STOCK Act is unambiguous that lawmakers are individually responsible for the law’s disclosure requirements, even if the trading is conducted by a third party. Even if Letlow is cleared of intentional wrongdoing, as seems likely, she almost certainly will face a series of financial fines for her violations….
Letlow’s opponents surely will be tempted to turn her STOCK Act violations into attack-ad fodder….. Miguez and Fleming know that now that Trump has spoken, they may have trouble getting past Letlow for the second runoff spot without substantially bloodying her up (figuratively speaking)….. [The full column is here.]
