U.S. Congress a millionaires’ club? Not so much in Illinois

Congressmen from Illinois are not doing a very good job of amassing wealth, at least not compared to their peers.

More than half of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate were millionaires in 2014, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. In Illinois? It’s half that rate, or five of our 20-member congressional delegation.

Topping the Illinois list is U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, a Democrat from Naperville, at $27.1 million in wealth. He is 33rd on the national ranking of 534 Congress members.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Springfield Democrat who grew up in East St. Louis, has $2.15 million in wealth. He is the 57th richest member of the 100-member Senate and ranks 198th in Congress.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican from Highland Park, has $441,503. He ranks 80th in the Senate and 362nd in Congress.

Metro-east representatives were: U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, $431,509; U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, $633,504; U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Springfield, $309,507.

All 20 Congress members from Illinois were worth a combined $43.2 million. Rep. Bobby Rush owes money for an ethics violation, so his assets were listed at $0.

Overall, 10 percent of the Congress members owned 80 percent of the members’ wealth. The grand total was $4.4 billion.

Millionaires first outnumbered the rest of Congress in 2013, according to the analysis. Their combined wealth grew 6.7 percent between 2013 and 2014.

Because members of Congress report ranges and not exact fugures, the Center of Responsive Politics calculated their worth based on the value of reported assets and averaged their reported asset values.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 2:14 PM with the headline "U.S. Congress a millionaires’ club? Not so much in Illinois."