Half of the candidates who advanced in the June 5 eight-state primary did not have personal financial disclosures publicly available to voters ahead of the election.

Congressional candidates who raised or spent at least $5,000 were required to disclose their assets and liabilities in a report to the House or Senate ethics committees by May 15.

Of the 304 candidates in the primary who were required to file disclosures, however, more than a third did not have the reports publicly available, an OpenSecrets analysis found.

The House and Senate publish the disclosures online.

As of Wednesday, 145 candidates had won or advanced to runoffs. Of those, 78 either had sought an extension to disclose their finances after the primaries or apparently did not file at all.

The House and Senate do not release the names of candidates whose reports are received but being processed; the turnaround time is days, however.

Rep. Martha Roby, who advanced to a Republican primary runoff in Alabama, was among 31 candidates who filed an extension — all but two were incumbents. The exceptions were Democrat Jessica Morse in California’s Fourth District and Republican Omar Qudrat in California’s 52nd.

Personal financial disclosures differ from the regular campaign finance reports candidates must file with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). For non-officeholders, the FEC filings and the hustle of last-minute campaigning can often lead to “honest mistakes,” as a House records official said recently.

“There’s so much going on, things slip by,” said Democrat Omar Navarro, who filed a disclosure when he ran in 2016 but hadn’t yet filed in 2018. Navarro advanced in California’s 43rd District primary.

“I’m going to make sure I take care of it by the end of the week,” he said.

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Other primary winners contacted by OpenSecrets Tuesday seemed genuinely surprised by the phone call.

“I’m not even aware of that (requirement),” said Democrat Charles Schaupp, who advanced in California’s Third District. “I sure as heck will do it now — file all (the paperwork). It’s pending, as soon as I find out what I have to do.”

Republican Johnny Nalbandian, a winner in California’s 28th District, also said he wasn’t aware the House required a financial disclosure.

“If it’s required then I will do it,” Nalbandian said. “I’ve followed every rule in the campaign so far, with the FEC and all that.”

Democratic nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. in Alabama’s First District said he hadn’t had time to file before the primary but planned to within a week, or before the late fee kicks in. Ethics rules allows a 30-day “grace period” in which candidates can file after the May 15 without penalty.

The late fee is $200.

Mississippi Republican Senate candidate Chris McDaniel also hasn’t filed, Senate records show.

McDaniel, a state senator, is running for the seat vacated by former Sen. Thad Cochran. Fellow Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to the seat until a special election in November.

McDaniel has raised about $3.3 million for his campaign — or more than any 2018 candidate whose personal financial disclosure is still missing. McDaniel’s name wasn’t on Tuesday’s ballot, so it had little consequence for voters.

“For some reason, I thought he’d already filed,” a campaign official said Tuesday. He said he would forward the question to someone else in the campaign who would call back; no one did.



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