It has long been a given that politics is a rich man’s game, and there is nothing in Roll Call’s latest compilation of the 50 richest members of Congress to contradict that notion.
The publication’s annual report reveals that about one in ten of the 535 members of the House and Senate rank among the nation’s top one-percent financially based on their net worth. Some of those lawmakers may be troubled from time to time to be associated with so reviled an institution as Congress, which is saddled with an approval rating averaging a lowly 14 percent. But they can take solace in their personal financial balance sheets with some showing their net worth in hundreds of millions of dollars.
SLIDESHOW: The 10 Richest Members of Congress in 2014
Moreover, few lawmakers have found that voters hold their wealth against them when election time rolls around. The only really rich Republican “who’s breathing hard on the campaign trail this fall” is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who ranks 32nd among the wealthiest lawmakers thanks to a $5 million gift from his wealthy businessman father-in-law.
McConnell’s Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes, began running a TV spot last month declaring that no senator who “can become a multimillionaire in public office” should be reelected after opposing minimum wage increases and jobless benefits, Roll Call noted.
Related: Darrell Issa: The Richest Lawmaker on the Hill
Even so, the latest NBC News/Marist poll shows McConnell with an eight-point advantage over Lundergan, 47 percent to 39 percent. Most other polls have shown a slightly closer race.
Because there are so many millionaires in Congress – too many to mention – here is a list of the ten richest members of Congress, courtesy of Roll Call’s analysis.
This article was updated at 3:30 p.m. today based on a Roll Call update of the top 10 richest members of Congress.
