Rep. Bruce Braley (D., Iowa) sold stocks he owned in oil and gas companies that were worth between $9000 and $135,000 in 2013, just before criticizing his Republican opponent for being tied to oil industrialists in the Iowa Senate race this year.
Braley’s amended financial disclosure report for 2013 lists the transactions for several oil, gas, and chemical companies, including Halliburton Company. The four-term congressman condemned the company in a 2006 interview with the Quad-City Times when he first ran for office.
"The Wall Street Journal reported a shocking example of [fraud and abuse] in February: Military auditors found at least $253 million worth of charges by the Halliburton Corporation to the U.S. Army in Iraq that were ‘questionable or unsupported by documents,’" he said at the time. "This kind of abuse is absolutely unacceptable. The culture of Washington corruption should never extend to our armed services."
The other oil and gas stocks Braley sold included stakes in Ashland Inc., CMS Energy Corporation, Rosetta Resources Inc., Schlumberger N.V., W.R. Grace & Co., and Williams Companies, Inc.
Braley’s campaign criticized his GOP opponent, state senator and Iraq War veteran Joni Ernst, in recent fundraising emails for benefiting from ad spending by groups "tied to the big-oil billionaire [Koch Brothers]"—frequent targets of the left. He has also accused Ernst of not supporting energy subsidies that benefit Iowans, such as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Ernst, in contrast to Braley, owns mutual funds but no oil or gas stocks, according to her financial disclosure report. She has said she supports the RFS but wants to wind down subsidies to other big corporations that distort the economy, such as oil companies.
Braley’s amended 2012 financial report included one oil company, Energy XXI Bermuda Ltd, in which he owned between $1,001-$15,000 in stock. The company is based in Houston, Texas, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, but incorporated in July 2005 in Bermuda—a notorious tax haven.
Braley previously censured large corporations such as General Electric that use loopholes to avoid paying taxes in the United States.
"We’ve heard a lot of talk about shared responsibility and shared sacrifice, but so far that’s amounted to middle class families paying more while giant corporations like GE hire armies of experts to avoid paying any federal taxes. That’s just not right," he said in 2011 as chairman of the "Populist Caucus."
Braley’s 2013 financial report does not mention any assets in Energy XXI Bermuda. Campaign spokesman Jeff Giertz said the stock did not qualify to be listed in the report.
"This was a Separately Managed Account that chose to sell the stock and Bruce lost $96," he said in an email. "Only sales worth more than $1,000 are listed in the reports."
Giertz did not comment on why Braley owned stock in the type of company he typically criticizes.
Energy XXI Bermuda conducts oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Braley grilled oil company executives at a hearing after the Gulf oil spill in 2010.
The Iowa race, a crucial contest that could determine whether Republicans regain control of the Senate this fall, remains a virtual tie, according to the Real Clear Politics poll average. Braley has apparently lost the vote of his neighbor, a lifelong Democrat, after he threatened to take legal action against her after some of her chickens wandered into his yard.