Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is running a presidential campaign against cronyism and corruption. But the groundwork for that campaign was laid in part by a consultant who helps industry capitalize on Washington policymaking.
In the months before he declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bullock’s federal political action committee, Big Sky Values, began paying a firm called Height Analytics. The PAC steered $32,000 to Height for policy consulting work beginning in August 2018. The last payment came on May 12, two days before Bullock announced he was entering the race.