Union Leader: ‘Reformers’ call out Bolduc China connection

In case you missed it, Dan Weeks, the former executive director of Open Democracy, and Betty Tamposi, a longtime board member of Americans for Campaign Reform, sent a letter to Don Bolduc’s campaign calling on him to remove his senior advisor Rick Wiley from his campaign payroll.

Wiley lobbied for ZTE, a Chinese Communist Party telecom company that paid Wiley’s firm at least $480,000 to lobby on regulatory issues, including bills specifically related to oversight of the company. ZTE later admitted to “violating U.S. sanctions when it exported American equipment to Iran.” Weeks and Tamposi noted that having Wiley on Bolduc’s campaign “poses a serious conflict of interest, and the only appropriate course of action would be to remove Mr. Wiley as the senior advisor” of Bolduc’s campaign.

Union Leader: ‘Reformers’ call out Bolduc China connection

The Sunday News obtained a letter sent to Bolduc’s campaign calling on the candidate to drop his top political adviser, Rick Wiley, because his firm lobbied on behalf of a company with ties to the Chinese government.

Dan Weeks of Nashua and Betty Tamposi of New Castle pointed out Bolduc has been tough on China.

Last week, Bolduc embraced legislation to prevent any company that gets money from the CHIPS Act to build any facility in China for the next 10 years.

In 2018, ZTE Corporation, a Chinese telecommunications company with part ownership ties to the Chinese government, hired Wiley’s lobbying firm, Black Diamond Strategies.

Wiley was listed as working on the account for a few months, and ZTE paid Black Diamond Strategies at least $480,000 to lobby on regulatory issues.

ZTE admitted to violating U.S. sanctions when it exported American equipment to Iran.

“Mr. Wiley’s work for your campaign clearly poses a serious conflict of interest, and the only appropriate course of action would be to remove Mr. Wiley as the senior advisor of your U.S. Senate campaign,” Weeks and Tamposi wrote.

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A former Democratic nominee for Executive Council, Weeks played a prominent role in Hassan’s campaign ad casting her as an “independent” voice in the Senate.

Tamposi is a former staffer in the George H.W. Bush administration’s State Department.

Since then, she has sided at times with Democrats such as when she led a group of Republicans for Jeanne Shaheen in her 2020 reelection campaign.