The Democratic congressman leading the charge to undermine his party’s two-track strategy to pass President Joe Biden’s economic agenda was the US House’s biggest recipient of campaign cash from the private equity industry, whose executives could lose lucrative tax loopholes should that agenda become law. The lawmaker’s former legislative director is also lobbying lawmakers on tax policy behalf of the private equity industry, according to federal records reviewed by the Daily Poster.

Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) has spearheaded a media tour and legislative campaign to pass a business-backed infrastructure bill separate from Biden’s reconciliation package — a maneuver backed by corporate lobbyists seeking to kill the latter because it will likely be paid for by taxes on the wealthy.

Gottheimer’s campaign to short-circuit his own party’s strategy is a huge favor to the Blackstone Group, the private equity behemoth whose wealthy executives are collectively his top campaign contributors, and who stand to both benefit from the passage of the bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill and death of the reconciliation legislation. In all, Blackstone executives have funneled nearly $200,000 worth of campaign cash to Gottheimer since 2015 — and his wife, Marla Tusk, works for a lobbying and consulting firm that lists Blackstone as a client.