National Outlet Claims Rep. Tenney “Spent Thousands on Her Own Companies”

A national news publication is claiming Congresswoman Claudia Tenney's campaign has paid her companies more than $100,000 over the last several years. The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday, that Tenney's companies were paid by her campaign for printing, phone services, rent and other services, during campaigns she ran while running for the New York State Assembly and Congress.

According to the report, Mid York and OMP both received payments from the Tenney campaign and both are at least partially owned by the Congresswoman. While it is not against election law or Congressional rules for a campaign to pay companies owned by the candidate and their family, it's frowned upon for ethical reasons.

One example given by the Daily Beast was office space Tenney's campaign rented from her company OMP in Clinton. While the campaign paid $1,500 per month for the rental space along with payments for additional services, Tenney paid herself a salary of $130,000 in 2020. The Beast also reported that Tenney's companies also benefited from now forgiven paycheck protection loans from the government during COVID totaling $860,000 last year, and $845,742 in January of this year. The Beast says it's not clear whether any of those government funds were used to pay her 6 figure salary.

Kedric Payne, the general counsel and senior director of ethics at Campaign Legal Center, noted to The Daily Beast that congressional rules allow a lawmaker to lease property to their own campaign only if there is a legitimate need for the space and fair market value is paid.

“The payment records in this matter do not provide sufficient facts to know if the lawmaker is in compliance,” Payne told the Daily Beast. “Voters should expect an explanation from their elected official or an ethics investigation to verify that the payments comply with the law.”

We've reached out to Congresswoman Tenney and we're awaiting a response.