Bennett, Hatch are loaded, but Chaffetz, Bishop not so much

While Congress is a sort of club for the wealthy, Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, both R-Utah, are much wealthier than most, according to a new study by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The report also said that Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is somewhat more wealthy than the average House member; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is a bit poorer than average; and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is nearly the poorest member in Congress.

"Generally speaking, members of Congress are wealthy by comparison with the vast majority of Americans. That doesn't mean they're immune to the effects of this ailing economy — they're not," said Sheila Krumholz, the center's executive director.

However, the report said the wealth of Utah's members of Congress has grown and they have done relatively well the past four years, except for Bennett, who had large losses.

The report noted it is difficult to gauge what lawmakers are worth because their disclosure forms do not require exact values of assets and liabilities. Instead, they report value of assets only within wide ranges.

So the study took an average of the maximum and minimum possible net worth of each member, based on their disclosures.

With that methodology, Bennett ranked No. 101 out of 535 in Congress in wealth, worth an estimated $4.3 million, the report said. Hatch ranked No. 130, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 million.

The average net worth in the Senate is $1.8 million, or well below the wealth of either Bennett or Hatch, the report said.

The study estimated the net worth of Matheson at $715,011 (No. 297 of 555 in Congress); Chaffetz at $496,006 (No. 339); and Bishop at just $3,501 (No. 526). Only 29 members of Congress were worth less financially than Bishop.

The average net worth for all House members is $622,000, the report said.

Between 2004 and 2008, the net worth of members of Congress rose an average of about 8 percent.

In comparison, Bishop's went up 121 percent (but still remained among the lowest in Congress); Hatch's increased an estimated 46.5 percent; and Matheson's rose 26.8 percent. But Bennett's dipped nearly 20 percent.

In fact, the study estimated that Bennett's net worth dropped by more than $1 million in the past four years.

e-mail: lee@desnews.com