Tillis blasts Cunningham over PPP loan to his former company. Cunningham pushes back
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis joined a chorus of other Republicans Tuesday in criticizing his opponent, Democrat Cal Cunningham, after a report that Cunningham’s former company got a loan under a federal relief program.
The attack came after the Washington Free Beacon report implied that Cunningham had criticized the Paycheck Protection Program even as the company, WasteZero, was getting up to $2 million.
“I supported the Paycheck Protection Program because it helped save one million NC jobs,” Tillis tweeted. “Cal Cunningham criticized it while his company benefitted. (sic)”
Cunningham, who says he left WasteZero in March before the loan program passed, pushed back.
His campaign said not only did he have no role in the loan application but he supported the PPP program. He criticized it only for missing “the industries and areas most heavily impacted by COVID-19.”
“Tillis and his allies know they are distorting the facts,” said Cunningham spokesman Aaron Simpson. “Cal supports the loan program and has called for fixes to strengthen it for the truly small businesses across North Carolina that need help the most, and this is a pathetic attempt to mislead voters . . . “
The race between Tillis and Cunningham is one of the most closely contested in the country. The outcome could help decide which party controls the Senate. The Real Clear Politics polling average showed Cunningham up by three points Tuesday.
The PPP loans — which in some cases convert into grants — were created in March as a lifeline for small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic as shutdowns began across the country. More than 120,000 N.C. companies received PPP loans, saving or supporting 1.2 million jobs, according to the federal Small Business Administration.
Cunningham was vice president and general counsel for WasteZero, a Raleigh-based waste reduction company. He made $383,000 from the company since 2018, according to a financial disclosure filed with the Senate. The disclosure also shows he had up to $50,000 in stock options with the company.
Cunningham’s campaign said he left the company March 20, shortly after winning his Senate primary. President Trump signed the $2 trillion CARES Act, which included the PPP, into law on March 27.
Cunningham was listed as vice president and general counsel in a 2019 annual report he signed on March 31. His campaign said he had left the company and was being paid on an hourly basis at that point and is still available to do occasional hourly work.
WasteZero, which would retain 115 jobs with the loan, could not be reached Tuesday.
Support and criticism
In attacking Cunningham, Republicans cited the article in the Free Beacon, a conservative web site. It said Cunningham “has repeatedly criticized the federal program” and called the program “unacceptable,” because it “harms communities.”
Those comments came in response to a June 17 Axios article that said the PPP loans had “generally missed” some of the areas that most needed help.
“For PPP loans to have ‘generally missed the industries and areas most heavily impacted by COVID-19’ is unacceptable,” Cunningham tweeted at the time. “Leaving behind small businesses — and disproportionately those that are Black- and Latino-owned — harms communities. We need oversight.”
On his web site, he cited published reports that some companies that had received aid through the program continued to lay off workers.
At a June forum sponsored by WRAL, Cunningham described himself as a “strong supporter” of the PPP program.
“We need to focus on making sure small businesses can keep people on the payroll,” he told Spectrum News in May. “And very important for North Carolina, a lot of women-owned and minority-owned businesses have been cut out of that very process. . . (A) lot of small businesses . . . that need access to the loans that they can’t get today.”
Republicans saw hypocrisy.
“Cal Cunningham has spent this entire race saying one thing and doing another in order to fall in line with his liberal benefactors in Washington,” campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement.
Some Republicans, including Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who called the program wasteful, also have criticized the relief act.
Even Tillis, himself a champion of the loan program, has expressed concerns about whether the money is going to companies that need it.
“A part of the problem is some smaller businesses don’t have the resources to necessarily to . . . even get the baseline documents to apply for the loan,” he told Fox News in April. “We have to make sure... we’re casting a wide net with the smaller businesses. In North Carolina, 80% of all the jobs in North Carolina are small businesses. We have to make sure that we’re getting this money into these small businesses so that they can make payroll and pay their monthly bills.”
Last October, Cunningham filed a financial disclosure report that showed him with up to $50,000 in WasteZero stock options.
The Cunningham campaign said the stock options ended when the candidate left the company in March. It said he has received no compensation or other financial benefit from the program. That could not be independently verified Tuesday.
Congressman’s former firm got loan
Meanwhile the former law firm of a North Carolina Republican congressman also got money under the loan program.
Records show Erwin, Bishop, Capitano and Moss of Charlotte got between $150,000 and $350,000 under the program to retain a dozen jobs. Republican Rep. Dan Bishop worked for the firm.
In a text, Bishop said he left the firm after winning election last fall. He said he didn’t know about the PPP loan.
Managing partner Joe Moss declined to say how much the firm received.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 3:41 PM.
