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Former senator Don Riegle left, announces his endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during a press conference in Flint, Michigan, March 6, 2016. | Getty Sanders touts unusual endorsement

FLINT, Mich. — Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is, per his telling, aimed squarely at giving power to the people and taking it back from a corporate oligarchy.

And so when his campaign staff here announced a surprise endorsement via an impromptu press conference before the Democratic debate, few expected it to be former Sen. Don Riegle, a Flint native but also a lobbyist.

Riegle started his endorsement with emotional and visceral comments about the Flint water crisis, challenging the “foot dragging” by the state and federal government. “We go all around to fix other people's problems and we often forget about the problems right here in our own backyard,” he said.

Riegle then moved on to some of Sanders’ main campaign points, on NAFTA, the Iraq war, Wall Street deregulation and campaign finance.

“[Sanders] has pointed out This poison of special interest money is contaminating our political system the same way the poisoned water was sent throughout the local water system for two years here in Flint by the reckless actions and disregard of Gov. Snyder’s overseers,” Riegle said.

"This wrongful power is creating government policy for the few and blocking the corrected policies needed for the many.”

But Riegle’s statements and support of Sanders hit many in the media as unusual, considering Riegle is chairman of APCO Worldwide’s government relations team and was a member of the “Keating Five”—a group of Senators who were the subject of a lengthy Senate ethics investigation in 1991 for possibly intervening on behalf of a bank executive whose bank collapse cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Keating was reprimanded for giving "the appearance of being improper" but faced no other punishment. He retired the following year.

APCO represents companies such as Johnson Controls, which Sanders has criticized for merging with a foreign firm in a move, he said, to avoid paying taxes.

Sanders brushed off a question when asked whether Riegle was the right person to endorse Sanders considering history. “He was here today to tell you what he thought about the current campaign finance system," he said. "I agree with him and I very much appreciate his support."