As an independent investment advisor with a background that includes previously having been a CPA and Chief Financial officer with extensive audit, tax and operational experience, it is particularly easy for me to provide substantive comments on political candidates financial disclosures, including investments and tax returns.
This work has been featured in leading publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, the Los Angeles Times and the Oregonian. I strive to be completely independent and provide the same focus regardless of a candidates political affiliation.
Gaining access to these reports can appear confusing and the purpose of this post is to articulate how anyone has access these reports given most major news stories review them yet do not provide a link to the source information.
On December 15, 2015 I called the Cruz campaign and asked why all the candidates financial disclosures appeared on the federal election commissions website except Mr. Cruz. I had already obtained the report from another website yet an important question remained, why was it not on the federal website.
At the same time I requested that leading reporters from the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and LA Times ask the question. Finally the report was posted on December 17, 2015, after several Republican debates had already occurred. Rubio posted his report on June 4th, Bush on August 21 and Trump on August 21.
Clearly, the FEC did not post it on the website because it was in dispute over particular disclosures. And even after being posted on the site 12/17/2015 it still does not specifically note the salary for Heidi Cruz, a managing partner for Goldman Sachs whose firm has made a margin loan against the value of their securities to Cruz.
Other candidates, most notably Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, have taken intense criticism upon revealing their income sources. Here in Portland the World Affairs Council would not reveal how much Clinton was paid for a local speech yet her tax return clearly indicated $250,000. That was a big story here in Portland, that a tiny non-profit trying to encourage younger participation would pay such a fee and make ticket prices out of reach for many.
Ted Cruz has still not released any tax returns since 2010, which is remarkable.
Jeb Bush has released more than 10 years of returns and took similar criticism for a variety of issues.
Here is a direct link to the Federal Election Commission page that lists all candidates reports, both Democrats and Republicans.
http://www.oge.gov/Open-Government/2016-Presidential-Candidate-Records/
The following pages for Cruz, Rubio, Trump and Bush clearly indicate when the filings were posted to the website. In Cruz case, December 17, after several debates, was the first time his filing appeared on the website.
