Senator Kyrsten Sinema interned at a winery last summer. Its owner co-founded a hedge fund that donated $6,800 to her campaign.
Kyrsten Sinema—yes, that Kyrsten Sinema, the Senate Democrat from Arizona who fought against her own party to block a $15 minimum wage—completed a three-week winery internship in Sonoma, California last summer, earning $1117, The Nation reports. And while there’s no inherent conflict-of-interest issue with a public official indulging her interest in the finer things, Sinema’s chosen vineyard raised eyebrows: Three Sticks Winery is owned by a cofounder of one of the largest private equity firms in the world, TPG Capital. TPG also donated $6,800 to Sinema’s Senate campaign. Suggesting this arrangement may have run afoul of a Senate ethics rule, journalist Tom Gogola writes that “Senator Sinema’s wine-soaked politics offer a bold and colorful bouquet of disparate notes, with a hint of corruption.”
