POLITICO: Shady Sheehy’s Company Spends Hundreds of Thousands on Lobbying
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
CONTACT
rehm@mtdems.org
Helena, MT – New reporting from POLITICO revealed new information about Shady Sheehy’s deep ties to lobbyists.
The reporting revealed that Tim Sheehy’s company, which receives 96% of its funding from government contracts, spent $370,000 in one year on lobbying. Additionally, Sheehy’s company hired lobbyists on retainer who were also donating thousands of dollars to Sheehy’s campaign.
Sheehy’s lobbyist ties are no surprise – previous reporting revealed that Sheehy raked in more than $200,000 from lobbyists and recently wined and dined with the “who’s who of K Street” – while Bloomberg detailed how Sheehy’s government-contracted business creates “genuine conflicts of interest” for him.
After abruptly resigning as CEO of Bridger Aerospace, Sheehy refused to sell off his “10.4 million shares of Bridger stock, which are worth more than $30 million.” As POLITICO notes, “the company’s biggest customer is the federal government.” If elected, Sheehy could personally profit off of taxpayers dollars by directing money back to his company.
POLITICO Influence: WHAT SHEEHY’S COMPANY SPENDS ON LOBBYING
August 6, 2024
Daniel Lippman
[Tim Sheehy’s] old company Bridger Aerospace — which he is the largest shareholder of — is still lobbying Congress, Daniel reports.
Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting and aerospace services company, was recently named in a lobbying disclosure, which shows that it had Collective Strategies and Communications and the firm’s Phil Hardy and Matt Gall on retainer to lobby on the House Interior Appropriations bill. Collective Strategies has worked since early 2023 for Bridger, which paid them $15,000 in the second quarter. Hardy in June 2023 also donated $3,300 to Sheehy’s campaign.
Bridger previously retained Crossroads Strategies, paying the firm $370,000 from 2021 to 2022 to lobby on aerial wildfire suppression and management, as well as implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure law.
A trade association where Sheehy is still on the board of directors, the United Aerial Firefighters Association, also has a registered lobbyist on staff who in part educates “members and staff on the existence, priorities and challenges of the aerial firefighting industry.” Besides his work for Bridger, Hardy also previously lobbied for UAFA, an organization that Tester has also met with.
Sheehy is no longer the CEO of Bridger, but he has said he still occasionally flies for the company, tweeting that “fighting wildfires is the best job in the world.” As of early July, Sheehy owned 10.4 million shares of Bridger stock, which are worth more than $30 million. The company’s biggest customer is the federal government, which provides around 75 percent of Bridger’s revenue.
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