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Calvert has long history of using taxpayer dollars to increase Riverside County real estate prices for personal gain
As real estate prices across Riverside County have skyrocketed, so has the value of vulnerable Republican and “corrupt” real estate mogul Ken Calvert’s assets – and new reporting is calling into question how much of that self-enrichment is thanks to California taxpayers’ dime.
The LA Times reports that over the last two years alone, the congressman has pushed more than $16 million in projects “within several miles of rental properties that Calvert owns, raising questions about the extent to which he personally benefits from the earmarks he’s secured.”
For decades, Calvert has shamelessly directed taxpayer dollars to projects “a stone’s throw” away from his own real estate investments, which help account for “virtually all of his wealth.”
Calvert has seen his net worth increase by as much as $20 million since entering Congress, and when the decade-long moratorium on Congressional earmarks ended, Calvert made sure to get right back to work for himself. And if Calvert’s corruption wasn’t enough, the self-serving congressman has also gotten himself tied up in illegal land deals and lawsuits for “fraud and deceit.”
DCCC Spokesperson Dan Gottlieb:
“Riverside County residents have suffered from rising housing costs for years, and they have self-serving politicians like Ken Calvert to blame. Corrupt Calvert has spent decades allegedly manipulating taxpayer dollars for his own gain, and voters have had enough of his self-serving actions and out-of-touch extremism. They will hold him accountable in November.”
Read more below.
Los Angeles Times: Rep. Ken Calvert has secured millions for his Riverside County district. Do his own properties benefit?
Laura Nelson | July 22, 2024
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Since Congress brought back the legislative process known as earmarking in 2022, few lawmakers have been as successful at securing funds for their district as Rep. Ken Calvert.
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Those $16 million in planned improvements fall within several miles of rental properties that Calvert owns, raising questions about the extent to which he personally benefits from the earmarks he’s secured.
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Calvert’s real estate portfolio includes 10 commercial rental properties in the Corona area, 20 acres of land in Riverside County, two properties in Arizona and his residences in Corona and Washington. His California properties are valued at as much as $26 million and generated between $320,000 to $805,000 in rental income for Calvert last year, according to his financial disclosures.
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Questions over his real estate deals have resurfaced as Calvert faces a reelection fight against Democrat Will Rollins.
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Rollins, who previously prosecuted national security cases for the Justice Department, has taken aim at Calvert’s history of real estate deals in his home district. Calvert, he said, is proving the “widespread perception that people go to Congress to become rich.”
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A review of Calvert’s financial records also show that the congressman failed to disclose the purchase of a commercial rental property in Corona in 2016.
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Investment properties are relatively common in Congress, experts say, but having a real estate portfolio in your home district can raise a host of ethical quandaries.
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Congress banned earmarks in 2011 after a series of high-profile scandals, including the infamous “bridge to nowhere” project in Alaska and several lawmakers who ran into legal trouble after steering funds to their districts.
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Calvert came under scrutiny in the same era, along with Inland Empire Rep. Gary Miller and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois), for profits they reported from real estate deals near projects funded through congressional earmarks.
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In 2005, Calvert and a business partner bought a vacant 4.3-acre lot near an Air Force base in Riverside County for $550,000. In August 2005, President George W. Bush signed a highway bill that included $8 million to build an interchange with Interstate 15, and $1.5 million to support commercial development of the area around the airfield.[…] Calvert and his partner sold the land several months later for $985,000, a 79% profit.
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Calvert has mostly prioritized projects designed to address traffic congestion. That includes $2 million toward widening a bridge along Magnolia Avenue that connects downtown Corona to a light-industrial area to the east. […] Calvert owns half a dozen properties within two miles of the bridge, including the automotive repair center, a strip of office suites and a self-storage facility.
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Calvert also secured $3 million for the addition of toll lanes in the center of Interstate 15 that will extend nearly 15 miles through Corona, El Cerrito and Temescal Valley. The northernmost point of the project is about four miles south of Calvert’s rental properties.
- The routes and stops haven’t been decided yet, but one of the two Metrolink lines running between L.A. and Riverside stops in downtown Corona a few blocks from several of Calvert’s properties.
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