Getting Richer: North Dakota's Senators Reported Big Gains In Their Worth In 2013

Late last month North Dakota’s Senators filed their annual financial disclosure reports, and it’s clear that being a US Senator is pretty good for the bottom line.

These reports are really difficult to use. Rather than reporting specific dollar amounts, the Senators report ranges of values that actually increase exponentially as they go up the value scale.

For instance, the lowest dollar value range reported by Senators John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp for 2013 was $1,001 – $15,000. The top value range was $5,000,001 to $25,000,000. The split in that bottom value range is about $14,000. The split in that top range is about $20 million.

Obviously, that provides a very distorted view of the value of the assets held by the Senators. But it’s the best we have, so it’s worth taking a look at.

The full 2013 reports for both Hoeven and Heitkamp are below. Here are summaries for each Senator.

Heidi Heitkmap

Heitkamp saw a pretty substantial gain in her personal assets in calendar year 2013. At a minimum her personal holdings are valued at over $2.531 million (a 34 percent increase over her 2012 minimum), and at a maximum they’re worth $5.515 million (a 15 percent increase over 2012).

She reported one liability, a mortgage held by Wells Fargo, valued between $500,001 and $1 million. Heitkamp reported six asset transactions during 2013 valuing a minimum of $20,006 and a maximum of $125,000.

Heitkamp was ranked by OpenSecrets as the 39th richest member of the US Senate. They haven’t updated their rankings yet to reflect the 2013 reports.

In 2013, Hoeven reported assets with a minimum value of $17.351 million and a maximum value of $66.365 million. Hoeven reported a minimum value of his assets at $10.209 million in 2012, and a maximum value of $64.021 million.

The minimum value of Hoeven’s assets grew nearly 70 percent, while the maximum value grew 3.65 percent.

Hoeven reported transactions during the year that totaled between a minimum of $1.849 million and $4.46 million. He also reported one liability, a loan held by State Bank & Trust of Kenamre, worth between $1 million and $5 million.

For 2012 OpenSecrets.org ranked Hoeven as the 7th richest member of the US Senate.