FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, February 3rd, 2022
CONTACT: press@chenforcongress.com, (714) 696-6048
FULLERTON, CA – Since failing to adequately respond to the major oil spill off the coast of her district in October, Congresswoman Michelle Steel’s year end financial report reveals that she has accepted nearly $7,000 from oil and gas interests after repeatedly refusing a ban on drilling off the shore of Orange County.
This continued support from Big Oil comes in addition to the $8,500 from oil and gas PACs and $3,878 from industry employees Steel previously accepted to her 2022 house campaign.
Steel personally profits from oil production and received income last year from Phillips 66, the biggest customer of the company whose pipe leaked off the coast of her district.
Steel’s financial reports have long disclosed nefarious allegiances. Last year Steel was tied to three high profile sexual predators. Her donor Anton Lazzaro was arrested after being indicted on five counts of child sex trafficking, fundraising partner Rep. Matt Gaetz is also under investigation for child sex-trafficking, and supporter Steve Wynn has been accused of a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct.
Navy Veteran Jay Chen, Candidate for Congress in California’s new 45th Congressional district, released the following statement in response to Steel’s unconscionable financing:
“Michelle Steel’s year end financial report reveals more of the same: allegiance to corporate polluters and pay-for-play corruption. From awarding a mega-donor a decades-long county contract, initiating a pennies on the dollar purchase of a public park for another supporter, and collecting thousands of dollars from a woman who had been dead for months, it’s clear Michelle Steel will do anything to fund her campaign. In Congress, my priority will always be the people of this district – that’s why I’m refusing money from oil and gas interests.”
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