California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband has no financial ties to the lowest-bidding partnership to design and build the first segment of the state’s $68 billion high-speed rail system, an aide said.

The California High Speed Rail Authority has tentatively selected a team spearheaded by Sylmar-based Tutor Perini to build the 29-mile segment from Madera to Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. The partnership submitted the lowest bid at $985 million.

Feinstein’s husband, the multimillionaire Richard Blum, once had financial ties to Tutor. But the Democratic senator’s office said neither Blum nor his firm maintain any affiliation or financial investment in Tutor Perini, or any other derivation of the company.

U-T Watchdog followed up with Feinstein’s office after a series of conservative and libertarian-leaning blog posts declared a conflict on the part of the senator, with headlines including “Dirty Business as Usual at California High Speed Rail.”


The blogs stated that Blum is the principal owner of Tutor Perini, and that Tutor Perini won the contract.

The high-speed rail authority has not yet awarded the contract, although the lowest bidder has an advantage in the contract selection process.

A conflict could be problematic, as the rail system has received $3 billion in federal funding and wants about $40 billion more.

Blum’s business dealings have prompted questions of the senator over the years, including investments in firms that received multimillion-dollar defense contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Feinstein maintained that in her role as a senator she had no say in how contacts were awarded by the Defense Department.


“Senator Feinstein is not involved with and does not discuss any of her husband’s business decisions with him. Her husband’s holdings are his separate personal property,” spokesman Brian Weiss said.

Weiss said that the senator’s assets are held in a blind trust, an arrangement that has been in place since before she came to the U.S. Senate in 1992.