Daines wealthiest member of delegation

by The Associated Press
| July 17, 2014 9:00 PM

HELENA (AP) — Recently filed financial disclosure forms show Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Daines is the wealthiest Montanan in Congress with personal assets worth between $8.9 million and $32.7 million.

In contrast, his Democratic opponent Sen. John Walsh reported assets of $66,000 to $165,000 in personal retirement and bank accounts, Lee Newspapers reported.

Members of Congress and candidates for federal office must file annual financial disclosure forms. The forms require each member to report their assets and liabilities and a range of the value.

Daines’ assets include property holdings in Bozeman, Belgrade and Iowa, shares of a small technology firm in Bozeman, and investment and retirement accounts.

Daines, 51, was an executive with Bozeman-based RightNow Technologies from 2000 to 2012, when he resigned and ran for the U.S. House. His last job at the company was vice president for RightNow’s Asia-Pacific business.

Walsh, 53, spent 33 years in the Montana National Guard, rising to adjutant general before leaving in 2012 to run for lieutenant governor.

Each candidate also owns a home in Montana, although financial disclosure forms don’t require them to list it as an asset.

Daines and his family have a seven-bedroom home north of Bozeman, assessed at $2.47 million, including the land, state property tax records show. Walsh and his family have a four-bedroom home in Helena assessed at $294,000.

Daines also listed home and rental property mortgage liabilities of $1 million to $2 million.

Walsh listed family liabilities of $180,000 to $450,000, most of which are home or home equity loans.

Libertarian Roger Roots of Livingston also is in the race but has not yet filed financial disclosure forms.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester reported assets valued at $1.1 million to $2.2 million, which are mostly tied to his family’s organic grain farm near Big Sandy.

His report valued his farmland, farm equipment and his family’s farm house at $1 million to $2 million. The farm earned $20,000 to $65,000 last year and also paid Tester a salary of just under $2,700, the report said.