Polis held stock in oil, gas, pharmaceutical companies

CD-2 Democratic candidate Jared Polis made hundreds of thousands of dollars from investments in oil, gas, and pharmaceutical companies in 2006 and 2007 - including some of the companies he has criticized primary opponent Joan Fitz-Gerald for taking campaign contributions from, the Denver Post reported Thursday.

Polis has poured more than $1 million of his own money so far in the CD-2 race, making him one of the top congressional self-funders in the country.

Polis' financial disclosures, filed last September with the U.S. House of Representatives, list about 400 different assets and income sources - including at least 20 oil and gas companies and other liberal targets such as Wal-Mart, Altria Group, and Imperial Chemicals Industries, the Post reported.

Polis sold the majority of those assets sometime in 2006 or 2007, the paper reported.

"Jared Polis divested himself of stock in these companies with atrocious environmental and human- rights records as soon as he discovered them through his fund manager," Polis spokesperson Dayna Hanson told the Post in an e-mail.

Polis still holds investments worth between $250,000 and $500,000 in in the Far East Energy Corp.; that company's Web site says it explores "some of the largest coalbed methane projects in China."  

The Post also stated that Polis also had investments in four companies his campaign had criticized Fitz-Gerald for taking money from, including pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Aventis, and Novartis.

The companies are on a list Polis' then-manager Wanda James called "some of the largest anti-environmental corporations and human rights violators in the world."

Polis made only a few hundred dollars off of two of the companies, Hanson told the Post. A third company, which earned Polis between $100,000 and $1 million, was only a week-long investment, she said.