Rep. Matt Cartwright (D., Pa.), who has cast himself as a "fighter" for working people, failed to disclose his ownership of a private plane and million-dollar lake house in financial disclosures required by Congress.
Cartwright, who represents Pennsylvania's toss-up Eighth Congressional District, has for years omitted from his financial disclosures a limited liability company that owns his $180,000 private plane as well as a trust that holds a Lake George, N.Y., lake home valued at $1.35 million.
Neither the LLC, Archer Partners, nor the trust, the Hague Personal Residence Trust, have appeared on any of the annual disclosures Cartwright has filed since his election in 2012.
Members of Congress, political candidates, and high-level government employees are required to file annual financial disclosures to make public information that includes sources of income and assets. Rules mandate they divulge "information concerning each asset held in a trust" in which the politician, spouse, or a dependent child has a beneficial interest.
Contacted by the Washington Free Beacon, a spokesman for Cartwright said the congressman would be filing his new annual disclosure, which now shows assets valued between $100,000 and $250,000 in Archer Partners LLC and between $250,000 and $500,000 in the Hague Personal Residence Trust, of which Cartwright is a part-owner. The congressman also amended disclosures from prior years to include the LLC and trust.
"Every year, the Congressman files his financial disclosures, along with any necessary and appropriate amendments to submit additional detail to prior disclosures," Cartwright spokesman Matthew Slavoski said in an email.
The updated financial disclosures show that Cartwright and his wife Marion Munley are now worth between $4.3 and $15 million. Cartwright purchased the four-seat private plane, valued at around $180,000, and registered it to Archer Partners in 2017. State records show Archer Partners is registered at the congressman's home address in Pennsylvania.
Flight logs indicate that the plane has been flown to the Lake George, N.Y., area at least twice this year between April 20 and July 20, a period much of the country has spent isolating at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cartwrights have been active members in the lakefront community. They were members of the Northern Lake George Yacht Club, where an individual must be sponsored by a current member and pay a "capital assessment" of $950 to join. Annual memberships for families run up to $785. Cartwright's wife has served on the board of the Lake George Land Conservancy.
Cartwright is facing Republican Jim Bognet, a former Trump administration official, in the upcoming Nov. 3 election. Cartwright's reelection campaign has raised more than $2.5 million while Bognet, who won the Republican primary in early June, has pulled in nearly $600,000. The race is considered a "toss up" by RealClearPolitics.