Welch stock trading makes front page of New York Times, as challenger Malloy closes gap

By Guy Page

This month, Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Rep. Peter Welch, has received at least three pieces of bad campaign news: critical coverage of his stock trading on the front page of the New York Times, positive national news coverage of GOP darkhorse challenger Gerald Malloy, and a national poll showing Malloy just 6.5% behind him.

Welch’s thumbnail photo appeared with many other members of Congress of both parties in an above-the-fold news story headlined “Stock Trades Reported by Nearly a Fifth of Congress Show Possible Conflicts.” The story named lawmakers owning stock in companies their committees oversee, transactions of these stocks, and lawmakers’ efforts to hide these transactions.

The New York Times story didn’t go into detail about Welch’s eyebrow-raising stock transactions. But other media already had.

According to Capitol Trades, Welch was the only member of the Vermont Congressional delegation to make stock market trades in the previous three years. Almost all of his 55 trades were “sell.” The most recent “buys” occurred in March, 2020, when Welch purchased between $1000 and $15,000 shares of Medtronic, a medical equipment company; PayPal; and Consolidated Edison, an energy company serving New York City and Westchester County.

Rep. Peter Welch and wife Margaret Cheney – Facebook photo.

The Washington Times reported December 28, 2021 that Welch and his wife Margaret Cheney failed to promptly report a September $6,238 sale of Exxon stock. Cheney reportedly had inherited the stock from her mother. Cheney is the former chair of the Vermont Public Service Board, the state’s ‘energy court.’ She also is a former chair of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, where she oversaw pro-renewable power energy legislation.

The Exxon trade went unreported for 53 days. The tardy reporting violated a 2012 law co-sponsored by Welch regulating congressional stock sales. The law sets a 30-45 day trade reporting deadline.

On October 28, Welch grilled Exxon’s CEO at a House hearing, including challenging his ‘credibility.’

Those facts were not lost on a non-partisan government watchdog group, Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT).

Recent reporting shows that Rep. Welch failed to disclose that his wife sold $6,238 in ExxonMobil stock on September 17, 2021, by the November 1, 2021, deadline,” FACT reported Dec. 22. “Although Rep. Welch’s spokesperson admitted that he had learned of the trade on October 25, 2021, he grilled ExxonMobil’s CEO in a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on October 28, 2021, and didn’t disclose the transaction until November 9, 2021, eight days after he was required to.

“Rep. Welch has been a member of Congress for nearly 15 years and is well aware of the financial reporting requirements. What makes this case egregious, beyond the violation itself, is that his office acknowledged that he knew of the transaction prior to the reporting deadline and not only missed it, but grilled the ExxonMobil CEO about transparency and credibility just days later. The OCE must fully investigate this violation and apply the requisite penalties,” said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.

It also wasn’t the only tardily-reported trade. A sale of Cloetta AB worth $1000 – $15,000, went unreported for 106 days, Capitol Trades reports. Cloetta AB is a Swedish confectionary company.

Welch’s spokesperson told the Washington Times in December he would no longer trade stock. The most recent stock transaction attributed to Welch on Capitol Trades is November 18, 2021 – a month before the December, 2021 promise.

Vermont Daily Chronicle published details of the Trafalgar national poll on September 11. Breitbart published its news story on September 18. The first four paragraphs are republished below:

Vermont’s Republican U.S. Senate nominee Gerald Malloy said that “Vermonters are ready for change” after being “fed up” with the current leadership in the country during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.

“I can tell you campaigning in the last seven months [with] boots on the ground… Vermonters are ready for change,” Malloy told Breitbart News Saturday host, Breitbart News’ Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.

“Vermonters have common sense, and they see, you know, paying at the pump and paying at the grocery store, and they’re fed up with the performance … from their leadership in Congress, and they’re ready for change,” Malloy explained.

He also noted that the campaign is moving in a “very positive” direction after a recent poll from the Trafalgar Group showed that Malloy is only 6.5 percent down from Rep. Peter Welsh (D-VT), a career politician who’s been endorsed by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Guy Page is publisher of the Vermont Daily Chronicle. Reprinted with permission.

7 thoughts on “Welch stock trading makes front page of New York Times, as challenger Malloy closes gap

  1. Why am I only seeing this revelation of Stock trading by Weasel Welch on TNR? Why are the other media wcax/7 days being silent of the corruption of
    one of our 3 stooges in DC? Protecting their leftist lackey perhaps?

  2. Ask Peter why he doesn’t support any legislation that would protect the American Flag!? He is a follower and has never been a leader for Vermont!

  3. Peter ” the Follower ” Welch, goes with the progressive flow and considers himself the
    chosen one for the Senate seat, but why ?? he has done literally nothing in the house
    and will do the same in the Senate……………..nothing.

    We need new blood in DC, Gerald Malloy will help Vermont with Vermont issues and
    it’s concerns, a ” leader ” not a follower of the liberal left !!

  4. Can anyone here (especially you Democrat Progressives who “lurk” here)….name ONE single bill or initiative that Peter Welch has sponsored in his whole decade and a half in Congress? Anything significant? If not, then the sole purpose of “Welch in Congress” is to be a ‘De Facto” rubber stamp for any & all progressive/socialist/liberal legislation….nothing more….they don’t even allow him to be a mouthpiece…he’s just a Progressive “robot” – programmed to vote every time, one way “for the Party”.. Mr. Malloy won’t be like that, is my guess. He’ll honestly TRY to make a difference?

  5. Conflicts of Interest are par for the course.

    Senate candidate Peter Welch, who is currently on the House Committees for Energy and Commerce, Oversight and Reform, Intelligence, Democratic Steering and Policy. Welch is a Berkley, CA educated lawyer from Massachusetts, who was, yes, a ‘community organizer’ in Chicago, before migrating to Vermont.

    Also consider one of the most powerful, unelected, administrators in Vermont, Margaret Cheney. She was appointed to the Vermont Public Utility Commission in 2013 by Governor Peter Shumlin, is one of only three people who determine Vermont’s energy policies, and who grew up and was educated in Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, India, and Peru.

    Ms. Cheney has ‘extensive’ experience in the energy sector (tsk, tsk). She was an editor for Menlo-Atherton Recorder from 1974 to 1977. She then worked for The Washingtonian magazine from 1978 to 1989. Her professional experience includes working as a Spanish teacher for Sharon Academy and a Television Host for CATV White River Junction. She has also been a freelance writer.

    By the way, Ms. Cheney happens to be Peter Welch’s wife. If anyone thinks these ‘Administrative State’ folks have the best interests of free-market oriented Vermonters (let alone Vermont’s dairy farmers) in mind or are at all qualified to manage Vermont’s economy, I suggest they take a tablespoon of intelligence-enhancing snake oil.

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