Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, echoed that point, observing that the relationship between Sheehy and Zinke illustrates "the reality" of money in politics.
But let's do a deeper dive into the Sheehy-Zinke past. The two men may have first met in 2015, when Zinke—then a congressman—awarded Sheehy a Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart for his military service. Since, Sheehy has described Zinke as a personal friend. Bridger Aerospace, which first registered as a Montana company in 2014, had never received a federal contract in the contract-dependent industry of aerial firefighting until 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, including a first-of-its-kind "on demand" services contract for unmanned aerial wildfire surveillance. When Zinke announced the contract in May 2018, he said the contract "reinforces our commitment to partnering with industry." Sheehy's company kept and nurtured its contractual relationship with the federal government. Today, Sheehy's company holds multimillion-dollar contracts with Interior and the Department of Agriculture's U.S. Forest Service.
Last year, federal clients accounted for 96 percent of Bridger's $47 million revenue, according to its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ultimately, Bridger banked millions of dollars from its work under Zinke, according to federal spending data. But the company cultivated that relationship to such an extent that Bridger appears existentially dependent on the government for revenue.
As Sheehy's company flourished, Sheehy's political relationship with Zinke also evolved. Until 2020, Sheehy only appears to have given a total of $250 to candidates for federal office, according to FEC records. But in 2020, a corporate buyer scooped up another Sheehy entity—aerial imaging specialists Ascent Vision Technologies—for a cool $350 million. That same year, Bridger began expanding its federal contracts, Bloomberg previously reported. And Sheehy ramped up his donations. So, 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.
BUT THERE IS MORE! 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. In his brief official statement announcing the bill on March 15, Zinke singled out Sheehy's company by name, saying, "I've stood in Elmo, Montana, and watched scoopers from Bridger Aerospace save homes, ranches and lives. Denying wildland firefighters the ability to implement their most efficient fire-retardant technology is like sending troops into battle without air support." Twelve days later, the couple 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. Bridger paid Collective Strategies $20,000 over the same timeline to lobby for that specific piece of legislation, disclosures show. The Zinke bill that coincided with the Sheehy family donations could have a significant impact on Bridger's bottom line.
Conflicts-of-Interest? Can Sheehy Be Trusted in the Senate When Bridger Gets 90%+ of its Contracts from the Federal Government?
If elected, 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.
This question would not appear to be so relevant if there were not questions about how Bridger got their contracts to begin with as we saw above. Bloomberg raises this question in a June 30,2023 article intitled Key GOP Senate Recruit Seeks Job Overseeing His Largest Customer. They say Candidate Tim Sheehy runs a company that gets most of its money from federal government contracts, presenting potential conflict-of-interest questions that US Senate hopefuls usually don't face... It'll be up to Sheehy to quell any concerns of voters who are hesitant to give him a role overseeing programs that fuel his family's livelihood... Bridger has brought in about $87.6 million in unclassified federal contract awards since its founding in 2014, according to Bloomberg Government data. In 2022, it pulled in nearly $50 million in federal business. The contracts with US agencies have provided around three quarters of the company's revenue, Sheehy estimated in a March earnings call. Federal contracts accounted for 96% of the company's revenue in 2022, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings."
As shown earlier, in 2018 Bridger obtained a $2M contract and three more before Zinke was forced out of office because of a series of scandals. While Zinke's questionable ethics do not necessarily implicate Sheehy, it does justify the asking of sincere questions.
Bloomberg continues "If he gets to the Senate, Sheehy will have to consider how to handle votes on matters including wildfire management requirements and funding for the Interior Department and Forest Service." Will he recuse himself from voting on relevant legislation? Shades from the past make that a fair and logical question. But there are more questions, will there be issues around what we would label as ethical? Sheehy's company also has retained outside lobbyists with ties to the Senate. Disclosure reports show that the company paid Crossroads Strategies $370,000 for lobbying from Sept. 1, 2021 to Dec. 1, 2022.
But then, the Bloomberg addresses the elephant in the room and it is the heavy hand of Senator Steve Daines indorsing a Senate Candidate in a primary. "Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who's in charge of the Senate GOP's 2024 effort, has been praising Sheehy in what sounds like a stay-away message to Rep. Matt Rosendale (R) as he weighs another run.” After Sheehy announced his candidacy, Rosendale responded with a barbed “Congratulations to Mitch McConnell and the party bosses on getting their chosen candidate.”
I believe that Montana would have an ethical conservative Congressman from the West if it had not been for Daines’ influencing that primary, but more on that later.
Tim Sheehy, Climate Advocate or Principles Conservative?
The Huffington Post asks Double Dip: A GOP Senate Candidate’s Shameless Opportunism on Climate Change. While this is a liberal source, they ask and answer some troubling questions, mostly with direct quotes. Note, again, that the article mentions that some of the “climate change” language was scrubbed from Bridger Aerospace website before his candidacy began
At a minimum, you have to ask was Tim exploiting climate change for political purposes? Sheehy previously promoted climate change to curry favor, perhaps with investors, now he is calling it the “Climate Cult.” Huffington says
“For years, Tim was outspoken about the need to combat global climate change, even publicly supporting a major initiative to curb emissions.” In a presentation to investors, Tim’s company boasted that its mission is to “directly attack CO2 emissions to combat climate change.” The California climate package that impressed Sheehy so much contained billions for wildfires, but also funded Green New Deal-esque initiatives including $3.9 billion for electric vehicle investments and grants for environmental justice projects.
In an Op-ed, in March 2021, a few weeks after President Joe Biden reentered the United States into the Paris climate accord, Sheehy published an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune applauding a newly formed, bipartisan wildfire caucus in Congress. In it, he called for global cooperation to fight climate change.
ESG and DEI – True Marks of a Progressive.
There are two other worldview issues that Daines and Sheehy are dancing around and they are both evil. While there are many distinguishing marks of a Progressive, two of the most egregious in this hour would be a person who embraces ESG – Economic, Social and Governance and DEI – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Bridger Aerospace company promoted itself to the far-left Woke community as a “fundamentally-driven ESG business,” thus securing a $160M ESG industrial development bond – one of the largest ESG-accredited “sustainability” bonds ever. After becoming a candidate, Sheehy then scrubbed all ESG references from his website. In this article, D.A. Davidson Closes $160M in Bonds to Advance Next Generation Aerial Firefighting Platform, we see Bridger Aerospace receiving a revenue funding bond from Davidson. The subtitle was “Deal with Bridger Aerospace represents third largest taxable non-rated municipal ESG bond.” The news release goes on to say “We are proud that our unique ability to accomplish a taxable, non-rated municipal offering will contribute to the greater good of our climate.” And what was Sheehy’s response? “Teaming up with a like-minded partner like D.A. Davidson that not only shares our fundamental business principles of environmental and social sustainability, but provides the financing solutions we require, will position us well to effectively combat today’s changing climate,” said Tim Sheehy, CEO, founder and director of Bridger Aerospace.
D. A. Davidson sure seems to say Bridger is all in on ESG as they go on to say “Bridger was an ideal partner for D.A. Davidson & Co. as the firm looks to expand its presence in the growing municipal ESG marketplace.” Try as he might, Tim Sheehy just can’t dance around this ESG compromise to get $160M.
Tim Sheehy’s company is clearly in the DEI camp. They say “we believe that diversity and inclusion is critical for the attraction and retention of top talent and we employ policies and procedures to recruit women and minorities... without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression.” When you hear the terms gender identity or gender expression, understand that they refer to the support for the LEFT’s darling – Gender Ideology and the Transgender movement. Clearly, Bridger and Sheehy cross a line between equal opportunity for race, sex or religion to pandering to gender identity and that is clearly pandering to Transgenders.
Picking Winners and Losers: Power and Money, Senator Steve Daines More-Jobs-Less Government PAC
Senator Daines is not only the leader of the powerful National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) to help elect Republicans, he has had his finger on the scales before and does again. Daines and Mitch McConnell have teamed up to support an establishment guy that will walk in lock step with them. This time to elect another Navy Seal to D.C. who will do the Establishments biddings. Steve Daines has made it clear that he is looking for rich candidates that can support their own candidacy, as Politico exposes.
A telling example of picking winners: But to really understand who this senator is, let’s go back to the June 2022 primary for a moment and see what Daines did to endorsed Ryan Zinke for Western District Congressman and oppose Dr. Albert Olszewski.
Zinke was not even living in Montana at the time. His voting record in the Montana Senate had been one of the worst for a Republican. He was in the middle of a scandal from his previous days in D.C. when he was forced to resign as Trump’s Secretary of the Interior and much more. But, no matter, he would toe the Establishment line.
There were lots of dirty little dealings that are hard to document but let’s just look at one that I can. The last couple of days before the Primary between Albert Olszewski and Ryan Zinke are interesting to observe. Let’ look at Steve Daines PAC, More Jobs Less Government expenditures. Let’s look at the Federal Election Commission, United States of America website that shows campaign finance data for independent expenditures. In the Spenders Name box, we put More Jobs Less Government and in the years box we put in 2021-2022 and this is what we see (below.) We see the spender was More Jobs Less Government to Oppose Olszewski, Al for $3,700.98 on June 4th, three days before the primary election and $1,442.79 June 7th, the day before the election for a total of $5,223.77 on phone calls and TEXT messages to voters in the Western District. That’s a lot phone calls and a lot of Daine’s THUMB on a primary and this only shows the last three days. In the election, there were about 85,369 Republican votes cast. Zinke beat Olszewski by only 1,674 votes (35,601 to 33,927) or 00.0196%. There were five candidates in the race, each of the other four candidates got more votes than the 1,674-vote difference mentioned above. One got 8,915 votes and was known not to campaign in all of the western counties. I could write a book about what else went on.
I know that Congressman Kevin McCarthy and the D.C. Establishment got very nervous just before this election and pulled out all the stops to support Ryan Zinke. You have to ask, why was Daines ALL-IN on a candidate who – any true conservative would question?
My point is that we are seeing the same kind of manipulation in this Senate primary to stifle Matt Rosendale - the only man in D.C. from Montana who is actually conservative. If you use the LINK mentioned above you see all kinds of issues. The giving or support becomes “Tribal” – check out how much Sheehy has given to Daines, how much Zinke has given to Daines, how much Daines has given to Sheehy - and the march of Tribal support goes on.
Enough with the “hold your nose and vote for the best choice” lingo. We have a real choice but only if we can convince Steve Daines to get his thumb off of the steering wheel and act like a man of integrity. I have friends who will not even consider my viewpoint here. They remind me of what Denesh D’Souza says about the LEFT in his documentary Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. “They have no interest in truth, their response is always DENY, DENY, DENY!”
Americans For Prosperity – Just a Friendly Question:
AFP is one of the largest, not-for-profit conservative organizations. I have long considered them a friend. Lord knows, we don’t need more Conservative Tribes. But their endorsement of Tim Sheehy is puzzling. Paralleling my puzzlement is AFP’s endorsement of Fox News Darling Nikki Haley for President – a person I consider to be a closet Feminist and Establishment Republican.
Jesse Ramos, AFP’s Action-Montana stateman says this. “We intend to put the full weight of AFP Action’s grassroots capabilities behind Sheehy and look forward to a new chapter of leadership in Montana and better future for all Americans in 2024.” What kind of leadership is Ramos talking about? My brief conversations with other AFP leadership indicate that they are in complete DENIAL of most of what I have said in this article.
Inconsistency??? Except, they sure could not endorse Zinke? AFP Action expressed support for Rosendale when he ran against Tester for Senate in 2018, and when he won what was then a statewide House seat in 2020. Rosendale also received an award from AFP last year as a “Pioneer of Prosperity,” for his work in Congress – Dec., 2022.
This year, AFP has put a focus on electability throughout its nationwide operations. AFP Action has spent finances on advertising campaigns urging Republican voters to select a presidential nominee other than former President Donald Trump, saying he would be a weaker challenger to President Joe Biden. They’ve also made endorsements in other Republican Senate primaries around the country. Ah, so Charles and David Koch, primary financers of AFP, are spending $70M to Dump Trump?
Could it be that this is because the Koch Bros are for open borders or is that just a rumor? Nope, you should read this article – these guys are Libertarians at best. Montanans for Limited Government (MFLG) says this about that. “MFLG was alerted to AFP’s alleged position on immigration and borders as suggested by the stance of their major contributors, the Kochs. Conducting its own research, MFLG located information that remains both concerning and contrary to our beliefs. Some of the information from then, and now, is shared below.” AFP and the ND Senate Race, AFP Action PAC, AFP in Florida, The Koch Network and ‘Stop Trump,’
Texas Scorecard and LIBRE Initiative, LIBRE Policy Agenda, Stand Together and SEMAFOR
But some Texas candidates are having none of this Pro-Amnesty Group’s endorsements. While I have my own questions about Donald J. Trump, we see AFP’s national organization in Des Mones - SEMAFOR spent two days shadowing canvassers with AFP Action, the organization affiliated with Charles Koch that has been working since February to build a grassroots operation that will help nominate someone other than Trump. Could this also explain why Nikki Haley is gaining ground in Iowa?
So, all I am asking is this. Will AFP please tell us WHO THEY ARE? Because they seemed to have changed.
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