GOP challenger in key House race blasts Dem opponent's explanation on ethics complaint: 'Not satisfied'
CINCINNATI — GOP House candidate Orlando Sonza is blasting his Democrat opponent's response to an ethics complaint related to reporting stock trades that he said is not enough to quell voter concerns on the issue.
"Absolutely not," Sonza told Fox News Digital when asked if he thinks Ohio voters are satisfied with Democrat Rep. Greg Landsman’s explanation of his stock trading activity that has drawn scrutiny in recent days.
"I mean, giving an answer that I'm not responsible for my own stock transactions does not fly muster. Do you really want that representative representing you in the U.S. Congress that says, 'I'm sorry? I'm not the one that balances our budget because I'm not on the Budget Committee?' No, You are responsible for every issue that's put before you, as voters should expect."
Landsman was recently hit with an ethics complaint by a former inspector general of the Department of Commerce accusing him of breaking the law by waiting 20 months to disclose stock transactions, far outside the mandatory 45-day period.
"It was a question of whether or not the stock trades were disclosed," Landsman said during Wednesday’s debate at Xavier University in Cincinnati. "They've all been disclosed. I have nothing to do with my trades. And so I didn't know. Once I found out when we were putting our financial disclosure together, we disclosed them. It was late and that was wrong. And I took responsibility. It happened to maybe 60, 70, 80 members of Congress in the last term, dozens this term. And we put in place a system to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Sonza told Fox News Digital that "the best way to look at how someone would act in elected office" is to "look at how they treat their own personal life."
"Their own personal finances, their own life decisions, and that's a good metric for how they're acting when cameras are not on and doors are closed, and I think you saw that tonight – so, no, absolutely not satisfied."
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Sonza also took issue with a comment from Landsman in the debate about his involvement in the "Gang of Five" scandal while serving on the City Council, along with the recent ethics complaint.
"That was a mistake," Landsman said. "I should not have done that. In both instances, I immediately took responsibility. Politicians don't do that often, certainly not often enough. I took responsibility and I moved on. I would encourage you to move on."
Sonza, who argued that Landsman would be a continuation of the Biden-Harris agenda in Congress, responded, "I mean, you had a politician that was asked point-blank why you violated the law, and his answer was, ‘We got to move on from it.’ No, voters have not moved on from you being part of the Gang of Five on [the] Cincinnati City Council or a judge who said voters should not vote for you ever again, and voters are not moving on to this very fresh allegation that my opponent himself admitted tonight that he violated federal law as a sitting congressman in failing to disclose over 80 stock transactions. I mean, that raises so many questions that really I think voters are now sadly just keying into."
Landsman, who has argued that he did not personally trade the stocks, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "We disclosed the trades, but late, and it’s been fixed. Sonza is desperate. Voters want normal, pragmatic, bipartisan leaders like me and they’re exhausted with the chaos and extremism of far-right politicians like him."
Sonza told Fox News Digital that while Wednesday’s debate was civil, it highlighted "stark" contrasts between the two candidates.
"No. 1, there is contrast on how to fix these big problems that our country has, and it comes down to policy," Sonza said. "You heard on one side that it seems to my opponent, just seems to be invoking a lot of the same rhetoric, political rhetoric and buzzwords and really no substance to it. The very bills that he talks about. … I think we've been able to highlight why they were actually wrong for America and why I would have voted differently in these last 20 months and what I will do differently if elected. So, policy-wise, whether it was the economy or the southern border or national security, VA, there were stark policy differences."
The Cook Political Report ranks the Ohio 1st District race as "likely Democrat," but Republicans have dedicated resources to the race as they look to protect their slim majority in the House in a race that could play a key role in determining that outcome. Landsman won by just over five points in 2022.