On Sunday, it was reported that millionaire candidate, Republican Steve Gaynor — who spent nearly $2.6 million of his own money to lose to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in 2018 — took around $1.6 million in PPP loans at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gaynor took the federal handout — half of which has already been forgiven — and turned around and opened his own sizeable checkbook to give his gubernatorial campaign $5 million.
“Thousands of Arizona small businesses struggled during the pandemic, but multi-millionaires like Steve Gaynor gamed the system and are now using the money they saved to buy elections,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Aidan Johnson. “Every Republican in this race is happy when the government cuts checks for millionaires and billionaires, they just don’t like it when middle-class Americans get in on the deal.”
Arizona Republic: Millions in COVID-19 pandemic loans helped business ventures of 2 candidates for Arizona governor
By: Stacey Barchenger | January 30, 2022
Key Points:
- [Republican Steve Gaynor]’s commercial printing business, B&D Litho California Inc., received nearly $1.6 million [in PPP loans], of which about half was forgiven, meaning it does not need to be repaid.
- The printer received an $844,470 loan in April 2020, according to Small Business Administration records compiled by ProPublica, the nonprofit news organization. B&D Litho California received another loan, of $740,025, in March of 2021 which is not yet forgiven or repaid, according to the records.
- Several months after receiving the second loan, Gaynor began putting his own money into his campaign for governor. Gaynor committed $5 million in contributions and loans, and in a statement did not say whether the PPP money put him in the position to self-fund.
Read the full report here.
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Published: Jan 31, 2022 | Last Modified: Feb 4, 2022