Elizabeth Esty has joined Richard Blumenthal, Rosa DeLauro and Jim Himes as millionaire members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation, which ranks among the wealthiest 20 percent of U.S. senators and representatives.
For the first time, Roll Call has ranked all 538 members of the U.S. House and Senate according to their personal net worth.
Esty ranks 104th, with an estimated net worth of $2.55 million, up from $2.04 million last year.
If he wins on Nov. 4, Mark Greenberg — a Litchfield real estate developer making his third attempt to win the 5th District seat in Congress — could end up among the Top 20 wealthiest members of Congress. He has an estimated net worth between $20 million and $60 million. Members disclose a range of figures, and Roll Call’s rankings are based on the lower number.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is ranked 7th, dropping from 4th last year after reporting net worth of $62 million, down from $85 million.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro ranks 73rd at $4.29 million, down from $4.5 million, and Congressman Jim Himes ranks 87th, at $3.05 million, up from $2.34 million the previous year.
There is a massive drop-off when it comes to the wealth of the other three members of Connecticut’s delegation.
Congressman Joe Courtney has an estimated net worth of $170,000 and ranks 332nd.
Sen. Chris Murphy reports a negative net worth of $160,000 and ranks 458th, while Congressman John Larson reports a negative net worth of $210,000 and ranks 471st. Both report being in debt in their respective amounts.
At the very top and very bottom of Roll Call’s list are two California Republicans, Congressman Darrell Issa, who reports a net worth of $357 million, and David Valadao, who reports a negative net worth of $3.7 million.
Esty has some family money from a business her father ran as a corporate CEO. Her husband, former Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Dan Esty, has worked in the past as an adviser to big utility companies and is a professor at Yale University.
Esty used about $600,000 of her own money running for Congress two years ago in the hotly contested Democratic primary against former House Speaker Chris Donovan and Dan Roberti, another millionaire.
Greenberg has spent nearly $4 million of his own money over the course of three attempts at winning the 5th District seat.
Roll Call said Blumenthal was the “biggest loser” in year-to-year reduction of net worth, but noted that the loss could have been based on a mistake he made in reporting relating to a trust owned by his wife, Cynthia, the daughter of New York real estate developer Peter Malkin. Blumenthal’s holdings include “a real estate company in Sao Paulo, Brazil, multiple properties in midtown Manhattan and entities that leased and operated the Empire State Building.”
