Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is a bad guy. In a different time, political people of all stripes would agree. Stiffing an elder out of over $50k is the kind of thing that made everyone condemn you at one time. The thing is, Bob is a bad guy under 2026’s partisan lense too though. He hated Barack Obama. He hated Colin Kaepernick too. Newsflash here- the guy doesn’t really like Black guys with political opinions, or at least he didn’t before he was running for Congress. He was a gun nut and school prayer proponent before too. In no measurable way was this man a good guy, according to Democratic values. He really wasn’t by non-political, neutral values either. Republicans are going to point out his personal finances and voters are going to cringe. He’s the one candidate who can lose to Mackenzie for sure. People will see right through the “working class hero” and see a bum.

The thing is, it’s way worse than I even previously wrote. While I was “away” at St. Luke’s, we learned where all his shady money went- shady causes. Much like he now runs as a “progressive champion,” it seems everything Crooksy believes in has a price tag:

Of U.S. immigration law enforcement, Brooks writes in his campaign platform: “In America, we don’t send masked men to kidnap people off the street and throw them into unmarked cars. It’s bullshit and un-American.” Brooks’ wife owns up to $1,000 worth of stock in government contractor Palantir, a company co-founded by Republican megadonor Peter Thiel that provides technology to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find and deport undocumented immigrants.

Regarding Americans staying healthy, Brooks writes: “No more lining the pockets of insurance and drug company bosses. Healthcare should work for people.” Brooks or his wife owns stock in several pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, including drugmaker AbbVie (up to $1,000), pharmaceuticals and medical products distributor Cardinal Health (up to $15,000), insurance company Elevance Health (up to $15,000) and insurance company Humana (up to $1,000), according to his financial disclosure.

In a statement to NOTUS, Brooks’ campaign manager Jenna Kaufman said Brooks has never personally traded stocks — the couple uses a professional investment management firm to steer their stock holdings, according to Brooks’ financial disclosure.

“Once in Congress, neither he nor his wife will own individual stocks,” said Kaufman, who did not answer questions about the couple’s personal investment philosophy or indicate whether Brooks and his wife would divest of their individual stock holdings in the meantime.

Among other stocks owned by Brooks or his wife: shares of Chevron, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. Brooks and his wife together also own between $2,000 and $30,000 worth of stock in Amazon.com, which has faced accusations of illegal union busting and formal complaints alleging as much.

Brooks’ exact net worth is unclear, as congressional candidates are only required by law to list the values of their assets and liabilities in broad ranges, such as “$1,001 to $15,000” or “$50,001 to $100,000.”

Taken together, Brooks and his wife could be worth as little as about $148,000 and as much as $3.89 million, according to a NOTUS analysis of more than 220 individual assets and liabilities Brooks disclosed on Jan. 28.

Crooksy is going to make excuses about why he’s running as if he’s Bernie Sanders, but investing as if he’s Elon Musk. The Governor is going to defend him, because it’s good for him in 2028. Allentown’s electeds will defend him too, because they don’t want to get on the wrong side of the fire fighters. It’s all self interest, and it’s everything wrong with the Democratic Party. One of the main reasons we can’t get the votes of people we claim to want to help is that they know we’re full of shit. This dude is invested in Palantir and Chevron, but wants you to know he’s a working class champion who will stop Trump- do you think any normal, functioning human being believes this? Like, outside of hardened partisans, do we really think anyone buys this guy’s lies? Be serious with yourself, he is running as a lie. The truth is that this guy was a relatively mediocre, normal, white male citizen with semi-racist views and money issues, people puffed him up by telling him he could be a very important person in Congress, and now we’re all being fed a line of pony loaf and being told it’s good for us. This was a bad idea from the start, hence why I wrote the original piece about him and left his name out, because I hoped he wouldn’t do this to us. He’s a narcissist though, and he can’t help himself.

You can’t pee on someone’s leg and tell them it’s raining. Voters who aren’t rabid partisans are not going to see this man as a “working class hero.” Perhaps 2026 will be such a partisan wave that it won’t matter, but I doubt that. Sooner or later, voters are going to view this guy as the entitled “fat cat” that he is, and it’s going to be a problem. It’s going to be a problem because it’s true. It’s all true. You can’t lie to people forever.