Northam owns stocks in Dominion, other companies with extensive interests in Virginia

[mahatmakanejeeves]

So do I. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Just about anyone who has money set aside for retirement has money in stocks. Reporters, employees at Federal regulatory agencies, everyone. You just have to remember as you go about your work that some decisions you make will go against your own financial interest. You have to put that aside and work for the greater good.

Investigations

Northam owns stocks in Dominion, other companies with extensive interests in Virginia

By Beth Reinhard October 18 at 6:35 PM

As a state senator, Ralph Northam began expanding his financial portfolio to include stock in companies that do extensive business in Virginia. In early 2013, he reported owning between $10,000 and $50,000 of stock in Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest utility and the top corporate donor to local campaigns.

Later that year, Northam voted on eight Senate bills Dominion lobbied on. As lieutenant governor in 2015, he praised legislation that suspended audits of Dominion by state regulators, a measure denounced by consumer advocates but touted on Wall Street as a boon to shareholders.

And if Northam, a Democrat, is elected governor next month, he probably will approve or veto bills that affect the utility — and very likely the value of his personal investment. The same is true for the other companies active in Virginia in which he owns stock: AT&T, Bank of America, Norfolk Southern, Kraft Heinz, DuPont, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson and Mondelez International.

Northam and his Republican opponent in the race, Ed Gillespie, have had extensive financial or business relationships with companies active in Virginia, raising questions about how those ties could influence their governance of a state known for unusually lax ethics laws. Northam’s investment in Dominion — although apparently permissible under Virginia’s ethics laws — already has opened him up to accusations that he has put the company’s bottom line ahead of the public’s interests. ... In particular, he has come under attack from environmentalists for not opposing a 600-mile natural gas pipeline Dominion is planning to build with several smaller partners.
....

Beth Reinhard is a reporter on the investigative team at The Washington Post. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, National Journal, The Miami Herald and The Palm Beach Post.
Follow @bethreinhard

[elleng]

1. Not good.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Yeah, but that's everyone. What's he going to do?

Let's say he gets elected. Please. The next day, he announces that he's selling all his individual stocks and putting everything in an S&P 500 Index fund. He's still going to own shares of nearly every company that he owns now, just not directly.

Put it in a trust?

At work (unnamed agency) we manage to work on regulations that we know darn well affect companies in which we own shares. We manage somehow.

I guess he'll have to come up with some way to be impartial as he governs.

[elleng]

3. More problematic, imo,

NOW, anyway, just the fact >>> fodder for repugs.

I'll 'worry' about the future IF! (PRAYING!)

P.S. Husb worked at SEC, and there were rules about holdings, requiring reporting AND no buys/sells for ### months. (I forget the details.)

[Yonnie3]

4. Only in index funds now days.

I can say that I think it is good that he invests in Virginia companies. I worked for a company that went public. I had some discounted shares that I got as part of the IPO. The rules were such that there were less than 90 days in a year that I was allowed to sell them. These rules were created by the company so as to not run afoul of the SEC.

There are ways to deal with potential conflicts of interest.