Personal Financial Disclosure

In Your State - Virginia

Center Identifies Potential for Conflict in State Legislature
WASHINGTON, September 24, 2004 — The Center for Public Integrity today released results of its year-long examination of state legislators' personal financial disclosures. Researchers entered lawmakers' outside ties into a database and cross-referenced them with committee assignments and lists of lobbying organizations. In this way, the Center analyzed three key indicators of the potential for conflict: overlapping committee seats, ties to lobbyists, and employment by other government agencies. Of 118 state legislators in office in 2001 and disclosing their interests in 2002, in Virginia:
  • 45.8% of lawmakers sat on a legislative committee with authority over a professional or business interest.
  • 39% of lawmakers had financial ties to businesses or organizations that lobby state government.
  • 11% of lawmakers received income from a government agency other than the state legislature.

Go directly to filings:
Click for full list of Virginia legislators

State Receives F for Disclosure of Legislative Outside Ties
WASHINGTON, April 20, 2006 — Meanwhile, Virginia ranked 28th in the nation for making basic information on state legislators' income, assets and potential conflicts of interest available to the public.
Virginia received 59.5 out of a possible 100 points.
Report Card >>

Sample Filing(s): Statement of Economic Interests
Filing Frequency: Annually | Filing Due Date: January 8
Filing Agency(ies): Clerk of the House | Clerk of the Senate
Top Ten Industry Ties
This table shows the percentage of Virginia legislators reporting in 2002 at least one outside tie—an employer, a personal business, a stock investment or a directorship—to a company or an organization within these industries. See methodology.
 IndustryPercent with Outside Tie
1. Commercial Banks 39.8%
2. Rental Property 28.0%
3. Real Estate 24.6%
4. Lawyers/Law Firms 22.9%
5. Securities & Investment 19.5%
 IndustryPercent with Outside Tie
6. Computer Equipment & Services 15.3%
7. Insurance 15.3%
8. Retail Sales 13.6%
9. Business Services 12.7%
10. Oil & Gas 11.9%

To Vote or Not to Vote: How Virginia lawmakers declare a conflict

According to the General Assembly Conflicts of Interests Act, a legislator who has a "personal interest" in any matter considered by the General Assembly must abstain from voting on it.

The statute says that, unless chamber rules say otherwise, abstaining legislators may participate in all other deliberations regarding the matter as long as they disclose the conflict at the beginning of a discussion or as soon as possible afterwards.

Both House and Senate rules reiterate the ban on voting in cases of personal interest.

The Senate rules add that a member who abstains under the conflict of interest rule "shall not participate, directly or indirectly, in the matter wherein the rule is invoked." However, a Senate official said that abstaining members occasionally contribute information during debates.

In the House, a delegate who fails to vote can generally be counted with the nays, but conflict-based abstentions are exempt from this rule.

Delegates who do not vote because of a conflict are recorded in the Journal as abstaining pursuant to Rule 69. Senators who do not vote because of a conflict simply have their names listed next to the notation "Rule 36."

Public Service, Personal Gain in Virginia