'Red flags': Kyrsten Sinema ramps up security spending with company owned by Tulsi Gabbard’s sister

19 July 2023

Back in February, the Daily Beast's Sam Brodey reported that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) had a costly security arrangement with a company called TOA Group LLC — whose owner is Vrindivan Gabbard Bellord, the sister of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii (who, like Sinema, is an ex-Democrat turned independent). Sinema, Brodey reported, was spending "more of her campaign funds on security than nearly every other member of Congress."

In a follow-up article published on July 19, Brodey reports that the Sinema/TOA Group arrangement remains five months later and is still raising "red flags."

"The revelation that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) had spent over $500,000 in campaign funds to a single security contractor — first reported by The Daily Beast in February — prompted campaign finance watchdogs to warn the arrangement raised 'red flags' that Sinema should publicly explain," Brodey explains. "The Arizona senator never responded to questions about her unusually high outlays to TOA Group, an LLC solely owned by Vrindavan Bellord, the sister of her former ally and colleague Tulsi Gabbard."

Brodey continues, "But Sinema's latest federal campaign finance filing offers a clear answer to the question of whether the senator has reconsidered her security arrangement or her obligation to be more transparent about it. In the second quarter of 2023, the Sinema campaign's payments to Bellord's company jumped to $114,000 — more than three times what it had paid her in the first quarter of the year, and roughly one-fifth of all campaign dollars Sinema spent in the second quarter."

According to Brodey, Sinema's campaign also "paid $48,000 to cover Bellord's travel expenses, more than double what it spent on the same types of expenses in the first quarter of 2023."

Brodey emphasizes that while it's "normal" for a politician to spend a lot of money on security, it is unusual to do it with "a single entity with no other political clients."

Brendan Fischer, executive director of the government watchdog group Documented, told the Beast, "Since (the initial Daily Beast) story, there's been more spending and less transparency. And that is very concerning. Over the last two reporting cycles, fully 20 percent of Sinema's campaign spending has gone to a single firm run by a close associate. I've never seen anything like that."

Fischer added, "I would expect both Sinema's donors and her constituents have a right to know how she is spending campaign funds."

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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