Helen Krieger is locked and loaded for National Night Out. What she won’t tell you is that her campaign is funded by Krieger Barrels, the Wisconsin firearms manufacturer with $903,601 in federal contracts — including with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Krieger’s largest bloc of out-of-state money for her Council campaign comes from pro-life MAGA financiers running Krieger Barrels selling assault rifles to ICE.
The West Hollywood City Council took up an item on the second of March called “ICE-Free Zones in West Hollywood.” It directed the city attorney to evaluate an ordinance barring immigration agents from city-controlled property, following Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Culver City. The item carried two councilmembers’ names: Chelsea Byers and John Erickson. It passed on the consent calendar, which is where this council puts the things nobody intends to argue about.
Five months earlier, in January, a retired couple in Hartford, Wisconsin, each wrote a thousand-dollar check — the legal maximum — to a first-time candidate for that same council. Their name was Krieger. So was hers.
Helen Krieger is a television writer, a Transportation and Mobility commissioner, and, since January, a candidate for one of three open seats on the West Hollywood City Council. Byers appointed her to the commission by direct pick on March 3, 2025. Erickson endorses her campaign. She has raised $28,892, third in a field of ten and effectively level with the incumbent, and she will spend tomorrow evening at one of four National Night Out block parties, standing with sheriff’s deputies under a banner about keeping the neighborhood safe.
The company her family built in Richfield, Wisconsin has sold the federal government $903,601 worth of rifle barrels. Two of those contracts, totaling $86,400, were with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The government’s own description of what it bought reads, in full: AR-15 BARRELLS.
The filing
California requires candidates to itemize every contribution above one hundred dollars, along with the donor’s city, occupation, and employer. Krieger’s campaign filed its first such disclosure on July 31, covering January through June. Ninety-four donors, $26,720 itemized.
A mere twenty-five of those donors live in West Hollywood. Together they gave only $5,630, roughly a fifth of her itemized money, which is a striking figure for a municipal candidate in a city of 35,000 people who has lived here for less than a decade.
Note: Krieger has been inconsistent with her residency claims. She asserts moving to West Hollywood in 2014 when her social media shows her living out of state at that time.
Eight donors live in Wisconsin. Four of them share her surname, and they gave $2,900 — considerably more than her four largest West Hollywood donors managed between them, which was $1,700.
| Donor | Location | Occupation and employer, as filed | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| John M. Krieger | Hartford, WI 53027 | Retired | $1,000 |
| Sandra Krieger | Hartford, WI 53027 | Retired | $1,000 |
| Andrew Krieger | Milwaukee, WI | Engineer | $500 |
| Mark Krieger | West Bend, WI 53090 | Manufacturing — Krieger Barrels | $400 |
That last line was typed by Krieger’s own campaign, in the employer field the state obliges her to complete. The full filing is public at NetFile under committee ID #1486101.
The company
Krieger Barrels, Inc. was incorporated on February 24, 1982, at 2024 Mayfield Road in Richfield, Wisconsin, thirty miles northwest of Milwaukee. The incorporation record lists John M. Krieger as president and Sandy Krieger as vice president — the same two names, at the same Hartford address, that appear at the top of Krieger’s donor list. Dun & Bradstreet estimates the company at $5.5 million in annual revenue and thirty-five employees.
It is a serious operation with a genuine reputation. Krieger makes single-point cut-rifled barrels, an unfashionably slow method that produces exceptional accuracy, and its barrels have been winning benchrest and high-power competitions for four decades. Trade coverage of the firm describes a family shop: the founder rifling his first barrels in 1982, later joined by two of his sons, Andrew and Mark. Those are the given names of two of the four Kriegers on the candidate’s filing.
The catalogue is public. Alongside bolt-action blanks in calibers from .20 to four bore, the company sells finish-chambered barrels for the AR-15 and the AR-10, service-rifle profiles for the M1 Garand, the M1A, the M1903 and the M110, and ammunition test barrels. In a profile of the company, the founder estimated that most of his output goes to competitive shooting and to police and military snipers. Krieger barrels were among the first fitted to the Navy’s Mk12 Special Purpose Rifle, the designated-marksman weapon carried through Iraq and Afghanistan. (What’s the Krieger body count?)
The federal contractor registration is current — NAICS code 332994, small arms and ordnance manufacturing, UEI GHUAK5KJADJ3, active through December 22, 2026.
The contracts
USAspending.gov, the federal government’s public contract database, returns twenty-nine awards to Krieger Barrels totaling $903,601.24.
| Awarding agency | Awards | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Department of the Army | 17 | $625,332.24 |
| Department of the Navy | 9 | $187,815.00 |
| U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement | 2 | $86,400.00 |
| Defense Logistics Agency | 1 | $4,054.00 |
The Pentagon business is unremarkable on its face and reads like a supply catalogue: rifle barrels, barrel blanks, velocity and test barrels, “M16 BLANKS TO AMU” for the Army Marksmanship Unit, a squad designated marksman barrel, a pre-ban cut-rifled barrel for the Navy.
The two Homeland Security line items are the ones that will matter in West Hollywood.
| Date | Agency | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 16, 2015 | DHS / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement | AR-15 BARRELLS | $43,200 |
| August 11, 2014 | DHS / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement | AR-15 BARRELLS | $43,200 |
West Hollywood declared itself a sanctuary city for transgender people in 2023, convened a special council discussion on immigration enforcement in July of last year, and in March directed its attorney to draft ICE-free zones.
The two councilmembers who authored that last item are the councilmember who appointed Krieger to her commission and the councilmember who endorses her for office.
The candidate they recruited is funded, more than she is funded by her own neighbors’ four largest checks, by a household whose company sold ICE the barrels for its rifles.
That is a contradiction rather than a scandal, and contradictions can be explained. Nobody has been asked to explain this one.
The other checkbook
Sandra Krieger’s political giving is a matter of federal record, and it is extensive. Under her own name and several variants of it, with her employer recorded across a decade of filings as Krieger Barrels and her occupation as accountant, she has given roughly $10,215 to federal candidates and committees.
| Recipient | Total |
|---|---|
| Ron Johnson for Senate, 2013–2023 | ~$2,150 |
| Republican Party of Wisconsin | $1,000 |
| Romney for President | $1,000 |
| Republican Party of Florida | $900 |
| Josh Hawley for Senate, and Hawley Victory Committee | $800 |
| Leah for Senate (Leah Vukmir) | $700 |
| Rand Paul for U.S. Senate | $550 |
| Republican National Committee | $415 |
| Trump Make America Great Again Committee | $300 |
| Tommy Thompson, Tim Scott, Sean Duffy, John James | $1,200 |
| National Pro-Life Alliance PAC | $300 |
The last entry is dated June 9, 2026. The thousand-dollar contribution to Helen Krieger’s West Hollywood campaign is dated January 21, 2026. Within a single six-month stretch, the same donor maxed out to a queer, bisexual progressive seeking office in West Hollywood and wrote to a national organization whose stated purpose is ending legal abortion in the United States.
A candidate cannot be held responsible for a relative’s politics, and it would be ugly to try. Families disagree; plenty of people in this city love someone whose ballot they would find unrecognizable.
What a candidate can be asked about is the money she chose to keep, and whether the people voting on her were entitled to know where it came from.
The silence
Krieger’s public record on firearms is empty, and unusually so.
Her Twitter account, active from 2009 to May 2020, contains 638 posts. We read all of them rather than searching for keywords. None concerns guns, gun violence, mass shootings, the Second Amendment, or the National Rifle Association. The only shooting she has ever discussed online is the shooting of television.
Her campaign website sets out seven policy priorities, one of them titled “Safe Streets.” It runs to roughly four hundred words on traffic collisions, sharrow markings, ADA-accessible sidewalks, speed cameras, and bicycle infrastructure. The word “gun” does not appear anywhere on the site. Her long profile interview in the Los Angeles Blade in June does not raise the subject. All four of the public-comment letters she has sent this City Council concern bicycle lanes.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW. WHERE WAS IT FILMED? IS THIS IN WISCONSIN?
This is not the record of someone hiding a position. It is the record of someone who has never been asked, in a city that decided the question mattered some time ago: on September 18, 2023, the council took up Item 6.D, “Enhancements of Local Gun Control Ordinances,” directing the city attorney to draft new firearms ordinances wherever state and federal law left room. The councilmember whose name leads that item is John Erickson — who now endorses Krieger, and to whose State Senate campaign she has given $200, in payments dated January 22 and May 13 of this year.
The arrangement
Set the transactions side by side and a small, closed circuit appears. Byers placed Krieger on a policy commission by direct appointment, without a public application process; Krieger has given Byers $600 and Byers has given Krieger $350. Erickson wrote this city’s gun-control directive and co-wrote its ICE-free zones item; Krieger has given him $200 and he has endorsed her. Her household’s other income runs through the entertainment industry, where her husband, the actor Joseph Meissner, carries a credit on MAGA Landman, the Taylor Sheridan series for Paramount+ owned by Trump supporter David Ellison.
And the largest concentrated bloc of money in her campaign arrived from a Wisconsin firearms manufacturer with $903,601 in federal contracts and an ICE purchase order for AR-15 barrels.
Every element of that paragraph is a public record. None of it has been reported until now, in a race whose nomination period closes on Friday.
Who Is Backing Firearm-Funded Helen Krieger
Forty endorsements, drawn from ten of the city’s commissions and advisory boards, two former mayors, a sitting councilmember, and a county supervisor. Fourteen of those endorsers also wrote checks. Cross-referenced from her own endorsements page against her FPPC Form 460, covering January–June 2026.
Endorsed her and paid for her
Fourteen of Krieger’s public endorsers also appear as itemized contributors on her campaign filing, giving $4,130 between them.
| Name | West Hollywood role | Donated |
|---|---|---|
| Esa Lewis | Television writer | $1,000 |
| Brandon Blau | Public Safety Commission | $500 |
| Bill Harrison | Public Safety Commission | $500 |
| Kelly Pilarski | Public Safety Commission | $380 |
| Andrew Solomon | Planning Commission | $300 |
| Abbe Land | Former Mayor of West Hollywood | $250 |
| Eritria Pitts | Producer (former New Orleans resident) | $250 |
| John D’Amico | Former Mayor and Councilmember | $200 |
| John Erickson † | City Councilmember; State Senate candidate | $200 |
| Kevin Barry | Business License Commission | $150 |
| Jesi Harris | Planning Commission | $100 |
| Mark R. Edwards | Planning Commission; 2026 council filer | $100 |
| Jojo Wright | West Hollywood resident, TV writer | $100 |
| John Guarnieri | President, Bywater Neighborhood Association (New Orleans) | $100 |
| 14 endorsers | $4,130 |
† The Erickson entry is worth reading twice. A “John Erickson” of West Hollywood gave $200, in two payments. On the filing he reports his occupation as “Self Employed” and his employer as “Brian Sonia Wallace.” Brian Sonia-Wallace is West Hollywood’s fourth Poet Laureate — and he is Councilmember John Erickson’s partner, who swore Erickson in at his December 2024 oath of office. So the councilmember who endorses Krieger appears to have given her campaign $200 while listing his own partner as his employer. Krieger’s campaign has not confirmed the donor’s identity, and neither has Erickson.
Endorsed her, no recorded contribution
Twenty-six further endorsers appear on her website with no itemized contribution on the January–June filing. Contributions under $100 are not itemized and would not appear.
| Name | Role, as listed on her website |
|---|---|
| Lindsey P. Horvath | Los Angeles County Supervisor, 3rd District |
| Bryan “Bubba” Fish | Culver City Vice Mayor |
| Democratic Municipal Officials | Organizational endorsement |
| Analisa Swan, Esq. | DNC Member |
| Alec White | Chair, LGBTQ+ Commission; President, Westside Young Democrats |
| Catherine Eng | Public Safety Commission |
| Tod Hallman | Public Safety Commission |
| Rena Goldman | Rent Stabilization Commission |
| Richard Maggio | Former Rent Stabilization Commission Chair |
| Dan Wentzel | Transportation & Mobility Commission |
| Jordan David | Transportation & Mobility Commission |
| Scott Korinke | Transportation & Mobility Commission |
| Nicole Payton | Chair, Public Facilities, Recreation & Infrastructure Commission |
| Deepa Krishna | Public Facilities, Recreation & Infrastructure Commission |
| Kali Rogers | Public Facilities, Recreation & Infrastructure Commission |
| Nick Wyville | Human Services Commission |
| Trevor Ladner | Arts & Cultural Affairs Commission |
| Martin Gantman | Former Arts & Cultural Affairs Commission |
| Angela de Silva | Vice Chair, Women’s Advisory Board |
| Debra Torok | Women’s Advisory Board |
| Katheryne “KTEE” Thomas | Women’s Advisory Board |
| Olivia Lane | Women’s Advisory Board |
| Raisa Aguf | Chair, Russian-Speaking Advisory Board |
| Luybov Levitan | Russian-Speaking Advisory Board |
| Wendy Jane Carrel | Older Adults Advisory Board |
| Alex Lewin | West Hollywood resident; licensed marriage and family therapist |
West Hollywood donors who are not on the endorsement page
Sixteen further West Hollywood residents gave without appearing among her published endorsers — including the sitting councilmember who appointed her to her commission seat, and a rival in her own race.
| Name | Occupation / employer, as filed | Donated |
|---|---|---|
| Helen Krieger | The candidate — writer, The Hatchery Media LLC | $1,000 |
| Chelsea Byers | Councilmember who appointed her; policy manager, Welcoming Neighbors | $350 |
| Anna Goodman | Event planner, AG Events & Entertainment | $350 |
| Austin Cyr | Campaign director, Ground Up Strategies | $200 |
| Mark Lehman | Lawyer, self-employed | $200 |
| Jordan Brusso | Flight attendant, American Airlines | $150 |
| Nick Renteria | Receptionist, Fehr & Peers | $130 |
| Gavin Myers | Marketing coordinator, Halo Top Creamery | $125 |
| Jonathan Smith | Content acquisition, Hulu | $125 |
| Sarah Adolphson | Co-CEO, The Artemis Agency | $100 |
| Jeffrey Chassen | Publicist, Vision PR | $100 |
| Harold Gantman | Not employed | $100 |
| Olivia Kuan | Lifeguard | $100 |
| Kyle McNally | Entertainment | $100 |
| Stephen Post | Rival 2026 council candidate; bid manager, LANI | $100 |
| Bethany Stirdivant | House manager, Changeforce | $100 |
| 16 donors | $3,330 |
The commissions, counted
Krieger’s endorsers include five members of the Public Safety Commission, three from Planning, three from Public Facilities, Recreation & Infrastructure, four from the Women’s Advisory Board, two each from Rent Stabilization, Arts & Cultural Affairs and the Russian-Speaking Advisory Board, and one each from Human Services, Business License and the LGBTQ+ Commission — plus the Older Adults Advisory Board.
Three of them sit on the Transportation and Mobility Commission, which is Krieger’s own commission. She was placed there by direct appointment of Councilmember Chelsea Byers on March 3, 2025, without a public application process.
Byers does not appear among the endorsers. She appears among the donors.
Sources and method. Endorsements and titles are reproduced as published on helen4weho.org/team, retrieved August 3, 2026; the candidate’s website notes that all titles are for identification purposes only. Contributions are itemized entries on Schedule A of FPPC Form 460 for Krieger for West Hollywood City Council 2026 (committee #1486101), covering January 1 to June 30, 2026, filed July 31, 2026 and retrieved from the West Hollywood NetFile portal. Amounts are cycle totals across multiple contributions where applicable. California does not require itemization of contributions under $100, so an endorser listed here as making no recorded contribution may have given a smaller amount. “Bill Harrison” and “William Harrison,” and “Mark R. Edwards” and “Mark Edwards,” are treated as the same individuals.
Tomorrow night
West Hollywood’s National Night Out is Tuesday, August 4, with block parties across the city alongside the Sheriff’s Department and County Fire: West Hollywood West at the Ashcroft and Sherbourne cul-de-sac from six to eight; WeHo Heights at Horn Plaza from seven to nine; Cynthia-Sunset on Vista Grande from six to eight-thirty; WeHo East on Gardner Street from six to eight.
Candidates work these events, which is what they are for in an election year. We have emailed the following questions to Krieger’s campaign, and residents who encounter her tomorrow are welcome to put them again.
- Krieger Barrels sold U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement $86,400 in AR-15 barrels. Do you condemn those sales?
- Will you return the $2,900?
- What is your position on the local firearms ordinances this council directed its city attorney to draft in 2023? You have served on a city commission for more than a year and campaigned for seven months without addressing the subject.
If these questions are not asked then the alternative is a council seat won by someone nobody thought to ask — is the outcome this city has grown too accustomed to.
References
Campaign finance — California
- FPPC Form 460, Krieger for West Hollywood City Council 2026 — statement covering 01/01/2026–06/30/2026, filed 07/31/2026. Committee FPPC ID #1486101. Schedule A, itemized contributions.
- West Hollywood NetFile campaign-finance portal — searchable index of all city committee filings.
- FPPC Form 501, Candidate Intention Statement, filed 01/08/2026.
Campaign finance — federal
- FEC individual-contribution search: Krieger, Sandra (WI)
- FEC individual-contribution search: Krieger, Helen
- Ron Johnson for Senate, Inc. (C00482984) · Josh Hawley for Senate (C00652727) · Rand Paul for U.S. Senate (C00461046) · National Pro-Life Alliance PAC (C00358051)
Federal contracts
- USAspending.gov — Krieger Barrels awards — 29 awards, $903,601.24 total.
- HigherGov awardee profile — Krieger Barrels Inc. — UEI GHUAK5KJADJ3, CAGE 0DCS1, NAICS 332994.
Corporate records
- Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions — corporate records search — Krieger Barrels, Inc., incorporated 02/24/1982; John M. Krieger, President; Sandy Krieger, Vice-President.
- Dun & Bradstreet company profile — Krieger Barrels Inc.
The company, in its own words and the trade press
- Krieger Barrels — product catalogue (AR-15, AR-10, service rifle, test barrels)
- Krieger Barrels — company history
- “Krieger Barrels — Like Father, Like Sons,” Daily Bulletin / AccurateShooter
- “Rifle barrels,” BizTimes Milwaukee
- “The Mk12 SPR (Special Purpose Rifle),” Small Arms Defense Journal
West Hollywood City Council record
- Item F.1, March 2, 2026 — ICE-Free Zones in West Hollywood [C. Byers, J. Erickson]
- Item 6.D, September 18, 2023 — Enhancements of Local Gun Control Ordinances [J. Erickson]
- Item 2.O, April 17, 2023 — Resolution 23-036, Sanctuary City for Transgender People
- Item F.3, July 7, 2025 — Discussion of Recent Immigration Enforcement Activity
- Item F.7, March 3, 2025 — Commission Appointments and Re-Appointments (Krieger appointed to Transportation & Mobility Commission by Byers)
The candidate
- helen4weho.org · Priorities · Endorsements · Meet Helen
- @helenkrieger on X — 638 posts, 2009–2020
- @helen4weho on Instagram
- “How Helen Krieger plans to fight for West Hollywood,” Los Angeles Blade, June 26, 2026
- Joseph Meissner, IMDb
The event
Publius writes about West Hollywood politics. Every factual claim above is drawn from the primary sources listed. Readers are encouraged to check all of them.