Sen. Sherrod Brown didn’t disclose wife’s six-figure pension: report

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) neglected to disclose his wife’s six-figure investment and pension payments in past annual finance forms, deflating his net worth by as much as half-a-million dollars, according to his latest report.

Brown, 70, in his 2022 financial disclosure revealed his spouse, Connie Schultz, held between $250,001 and $500,000 in a 401(k) from her time as a journalist with The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.

The news outlet, which employed Schultz as a columnist from 1993 to 2011, first reported the disclosures, along with between $100,001 and $250,000 she held from her teachers’ pension as a former professor at Kent State University.

The disclosures were added in a brief subsequent filing from the powerhouse Democratic firm Elias Law Group LLP, which showed the retirement assets for Schultz stretching back to 2007 — Brown’s first year in the Senate.

“Connie’s retirement was not listed and the previous reports have now been updated,” Rachel Petri, a spokeswoman for Brown’s campaign, said in a statement.

The senator also holds assets in a state employee pension plan and bank accounts that range from $133,006 to $395,000 — with between $200,002 and $500,000 in liabilities for mortgages on properties in Cleveland and Columbus.

Brown earns $174,000 per year as a senator and collected roughly $27,000 last year from his Ohio pension as a former state lawmaker.

Ethics rules require senators to list assets held in their spouses’ retirement accounts and all transactions totaling more than $1,000.

Brown has taken shots at opponents before for failing to be timely in disclosing their finances. In 2012, his campaign attacked Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel for filing his personal finance forms six months late.

The missed disclosures weren’t the only financial mixup for the Ohio Democrat this year. In May, Brown wrongly claimed tax credits on his properties and was late making payments for one several times.

He paid back taxes on both and is forgoing the credits in the future, according to his campaign. The Plain Dealer reported a similar late tax payment on the senator’s Washington, DC, condo in 2012.

The financial mishaps could be a stumbling block for Brown, as he seeks re-election to a fourth term in a competitive 2024 race.

Republican challengers including GOP Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, GOP state Sen. Matt Dolan and Buckeye State businessman Bernie Moreno polled within single digits of Brown in several June polls.

“Sherrod Brown has been in Washington, DC so long, he’s completely lost track of reality and his own hypocrisy,” Dolan told The Post. “After voting to raise Ohioans’ taxes, Brown got caught dodging his own tax payments. Now he’s guilty of ignoring the same ethics rules he used to attack Republicans.”

“Sherrod Brown arrogantly thinks the rules don’t apply to him, but next year Ohioans are going to send him a message that he’s dead wrong,” he added.

Brown and Schultz married in 2004 during her tenure at The Plain Dealer, and she took up her teaching post at Kent State in 2015. She left this year to accept a position in Denison University’s journalism department.

Schultz last year earned more than $4,000 for her professorial roles, her royalties from the publisher Random House and her work as a columnist at USA Today, the senator’s 2022 financial disclosures show.

She was also paid $750 for two articles published in The Washington Post.