Despite reports out of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that indicate upwards of 80,000 jobs could be created through fracking, congressional candidate Sean Eldridge has repeatedly stated in interviews that “I oppose fracking.” This despite having acknowledged the economic benefits in allowing fracking that would bring “more jobs and more economic growth” to New York.
Even though Eldridge has publicly denounced fracking as a technique that would put “our environment, our water, our land” at risk, he and his husband have invested and profited significantly from companies that employ the practice.
Via the Free Beacon:
Eldridge’s husband, Facebook cofounder and New Republic editor Chris Hughes, owns stakes worth as much as $1.35 million in oil companies that employ the practice.
Those investments include between $500,000 and $1 million in oil giant ExxonMobil, between $100,000 and $250,000 in Halliburton, between $15,000 and $50,000 in Cabot Oil and Gas, and between $15,000 and $50,000 in Carrizo Oil And Gas, according to personal financial disclosure forms released on Thursday.
Hughes received up to $51,203 in dividend payments from those investments in 2013 and 2014, according to the disclosures.
Further, Eldridge and his husband have invested significantly in companies that Democrats often point to with disdain, and which the party labels similarly. Big banks. Big Tobacco. Big Oil.
Ian Prior, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), says this makes Eldridge a hypocrite.
World’s biggest phony Sean Eldridge has millions of dollars invested in big banks, big oil companies, big tobacco companies, and other big corporations that he hypocritically criticizes on the campaign trail. If Eldridge seems to think he can win an election buying votes and misleading Hudson Valley families about who he is and what he really stands for, he is going to be in for a rude awakening this fall.
Eldridge’s opponent in the 19th Congressional District, Chris Gibson, has also called it hypocrisy, saying that these financial disclosures reveal a double standard.
The NRCC claims that Eldridge has been using some of the wealth he and his husband are attaining partially through Big Fracking companies to purchase a seat in Congress: $2.7 million total thus far, with $1.7 million coming from his venture capital firm, and about another $1 million from his own pocket.
How can a candidate who opposes money in politics, fracking, and big corporations, explain to his base that he is pouring money from fracking and big corporations into his politics?
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
