NEW: “Swampy” Sheehy Poured Donations into Zinke’s Campaign After Securing Federal Favors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 16, 2023
CONTACT
monica@mtdems.org
Helena, MT – There is no end in sight for multimillionaire Montana newcomer Tim Sheehy’s expanding list of ethics issues. Today, reporting from the Daily Beast shed light on the cozy relationship between Sheehy, his business, and Rep. Ryan Zinke.
The reporting reveals that Sheehy and his family members poured nearly $50,000 into Zinke’s campaign and PAC while Zinke was introducing a bill Bridger Aerospace lobbied for. Zinke, who was a personal friend of Sheehy’s, also awarded Bridger Aerospace its very first Interior Department contract – just months after he became Secretary of the Interior.
Read more about the Sheehy-Zinke relationship and why it’s “not what a lot of Americans may consider to be ethical”:
Daily Beast: This Top GOP Recruit Has a Swampy Connection to a Trumpy Rep
By Roger Sollenberger and Jake Lahut
Oct 16, 2023
Bridger Aerospace, a Montana-based aerial firefighting company which Sheehy founded and still runs, has reaped millions of dollars from the same system that Sheehy has decried as a candidate, according to a review of government contracts, lobbying disclosures, and political donations.
Years ago, when Zinke was Secretary of the Interior in the Trump administration, his department awarded Sheehy’s company its very first contract. Since then, Sheehy and his family have gone on to shower their fellow Montana Republican with political contributions, while Bridger lobbied to pass industry-friendly legislation introduced by Zinke.
Sheehy and his family have donated nearly $50,000 to Zinke’s campaigns since last January, all while Zinke has pushed legislation that would benefit Bridger.
Sheehy could present a potentially novel new conflict of interest: the first sitting senator in charge of a private company that holds millions of dollars in federal contracts […] he has not said whether he will divest from Bridger, which is publicly traded.
In what is almost certainly a sign of more self-funding to come, Sheehy already cut a $500,000 loan to his campaign, according to the campaign’s first Federal Election Commission filing, released on Sunday. The filing also shows that the campaign has paid Bridger roughly $32,000 from July through September, for expenses listed as office space and flights.
Bridger, which first registered as a Montana company in 2014, had never received a federal contract in the contract-dependent industry of aerial firefighting until Jan. 2018—nine months after Zinke took over at the Interior Department. That month, federal spending records show, Interior steered a contract to Bridger alias “Mountain Air LLC.” It has since paid out about $2 million […] Bridger landed three other federal contracts under Zinke’s brief tenure as Interior secretary, federal records show.
Last year, federal clients accounted for 96 percent of Bridger’s $47 million revenue last year, according to its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
When Zinke launched his 2022 congressional campaign after cooling his heels for three years, Sheehy was behind him. Between January 2022 and June of this year, Sheehy and three of his close family members contributed nearly $50,000 combined to Zinke’s campaign and leadership PAC, according to FEC data.
Most of it, however, came this year—after Zinke was already elected. And those 2023 donations appear to align with Bridger’s lobbying efforts on legislation that Zinke had sponsored.
In March, for instance, Sheehy and his wife contributed roughly $15,000 to Zinke and his leadership PAC soon after the congressman introduced a bill that aimed to make fire retardants exempt from federal environmental restrictions. Bridger had retained lobbying firm Collective Strategies the month before Zinke announced the bill, federal lobbying disclosures show.
[Sheehy and his wife] joined up with Sheehy’s brother and business partner, Matt—chairman of Bridger and Ascent Vision Technologies—to kick another $20,000 to Zinke, all on May 3, per FEC data. (Matt Sheehy’s gift to the leadership PAC exceeded the individual contribution limit, and $5,000 was reallocated to his wife in June.) Bridger paid Collective Strategies $20,000 over the same timeline to lobby for that specific piece of legislation, disclosures show.
Spaulding, of Common Cause, told The Daily Beast that he couldn’t think of any precedent where a sitting senator owned a private company that held federal contracts. Elected officials should observe “the highest ethical standards,” he said, and argued Sheehy’s constituents deserve to know whether he will cut all ties, including divestiture.
“As long as he and his family hold a major ownership stake in the company, and the company continues to pursue federal contracts,” Libowitz said, “his constituents will question whether he’s acting purely in their interests or whether he’s using his position in a way to financially benefit himself.”
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