U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz’s campaign said Thursday, Sept. 24, that her attorneys had demanded Indianapolis television stations stop airing a political advertisement she says falsely portrays her as profiting from stock trading while serving in Congress.
The advertisement, sponsored by Commonsense Hoosiers PAC, accuses Spartz of becoming “a corrupt politician getting rich at our expense,” according to a cease-and-desist letter provided by her campaign.
The campaign’s news release identifies WISH-TV, WNDY-TV and WRTV as recipients of its demand. The copy of the letter supplied with the release is addressed to WTHR sales manager Brent Denny.
Spartz, the Republican incumbent in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, is seeking reelection against Democrat J.D. Ford. The district includes Fishers.
“This is not a difference of political opinion. These are objectively verifiable facts,” Spartz said in the campaign release. “I have never personally owned or traded individual stocks, and I certainly did not get rich in Congress, through stock trading or anything else — as anyone can see from my public financial disclosures.”
Her attorneys, Jason Torchinsky and David Johnson of Holtzman Vogel, argue that the advertisement incorrectly attributes transactions in her husband’s and dependent children’s Roth retirement accounts to Spartz personally. They also dispute the advertisement’s use of a $5 million figure, saying it appears to reflect the upper end of a reported transaction range.
Financial disclosures included with the letter identify multiple stock transactions as belonging to family members’ retirement accounts. One entry in the report covering 2024 lists a partial sale of Simon Property Group stock on Sept. 20, 2024, valued between $1,000,001 and $5 million. The entry specifically identifies the transaction as being made by Jason Spartz’s Roth IRA.
That disclosure reports a range for the sale amount. It does not establish an exact $5 million transaction or identify that amount as profit.
The attorneys acknowledge that five transactions in the report covering 2021 lack descriptions identifying the account owner. They say those transactions also involved Jason Spartz’s Roth IRA and supplied account records in support of their argument.
The campaign separately maintains that Spartz’s overall disclosed net worth has not materially changed since she entered Congress and that most family assets consist of real estate, farmland and other holdings largely owned before she took office. The disclosures list assets and liabilities in broad ranges, limiting precise comparisons of net worth.
The dispute comes amid broader criticism of Spartz’s finances by Ford. His campaign’s online media kit alleges that she traded $5 million in stocks in industries she regulated while in Congress. Spartz’s attorneys cite that page in their letter and contend the PAC advertisement repeats its allegations.
The letter calls the advertisement false and defamatory and warns that Spartz is prepared to seek legal relief if it continues airing. Those are her attorneys’ allegations; the letter is a demand to remove the advertisement, not a court ruling on its accuracy.
The materials provided by the campaign do not establish whether any station has stopped airing the ad.