Florida Congressional Hopeful Illegally Omitted Stock Holdings From Her Financial Disclosure, Watchdog Says
As Annette Taddeo accuses oil companies of ‘price gouging,’ she won’t tell voters if she’s still invested in Exxon
Democratic Florida congressional candidate Annette Taddeo / @Annette_Taddeo Collin Anderson • September 29, 2022 5:00 am
Florida Democratic congressional hopeful Annette Taddeo illegally omitted stock holdings from her candidate financial disclosure, a new complaint says. A look into her past disclosures may explain why—Taddeo in 2016 reported a sizable stake in a U.S. oil giant and now accuses oil companies of “price gouging.”
In her July 6 financial disclosure, Taddeo—who is running to unseat Rep. Maria Salazar (R., Fla.)—violated federal law and House ethics rules by failing to disclose the stocks held within her investment accounts, a Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust complaint obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon states. During her failed congressional run in 2016, however, Taddeo did disclose the stocks within those accounts, which included a $100,000 stake in America’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil.
That holding may explain why Taddeo is hesitant to reveal her investments during her second congressional campaign. Taddeo on July 15 accused Salazar of failing to stand up to oil companies, which the Democrat accused of “price gouging at the pumps.” On her campaign site, meanwhile, Taddeo pledges to “be a champion in Congress for taking on [the] corporate greed that’s worsened our current economic crisis” and “push for solutions to stop big gas companies from price gouging.” But Taddeo earned up to $5,500 in Exxon dividends from January 2015 to April 2016, profit that could undermine her attempts to vilify big oil companies should she still hold the stock.
Taddeo’s campaign did not return a request for comment. The Democrat’s criticism of Salazar on gas prices stems from Salazar’s May vote against House Democrats’ so-called Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act. While the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Kim Schrier (D., Wash.), said the legislation would “protect families’ wallets at the gas pump,” other Democrats acknowledged that it would do nothing to address inflation. Jason Furman, who chaired former president Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers,
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