By Emelie Rutherford
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) raised more contributions from the defense industry than any other House candidate did this past election season, and his former aide’s lobbying firm was the top donor to the military funding panel Murtha chairs, newly compiled data shows.
Murtha, the powerful House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) chairman who holds great sway over the fate of Pentagon programs, raised more than $438,000 from donors and political-action committees tied to the defense industry, according to an analysis out this week of campaign-finance donations of at least $200.
That’s more than twice what the industry chipped in to the campaigns of either HAC-D Ranking Member Bill Young (R-Fla.) or House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), who, respectively, received at least $216,000 and $212,000 in such donations, the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) analysis shows. HAC-D member Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) came in a distant second to Murtha in House defense-industry donations, garnering at least $226,000.
“Would you expect anything less?,” one defense watcher said about Murtha’s industry-fattened war chest.
The HAC-D chairman raised $3.4 million from all donors in his unexpectedly close bid last month for reelection to an 18th term, according to the final finance report he submitted this month to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). More than $1 million of Murtha’s donations came after a fundraising plea to recipients including defense-industry executives in the campaign’s final frenetic days (Defense Daily, Nov. 5).
Murtha’s most-generous donor overall was General Dynamics [GD], whose employees gave him at least $38,000, according to a CRP tally of lawmakers’ top contributors. Big-ticket General Dynamics matters the HAC-D weighed in on this past congressional session included the fate of the DDG-1000 and DDG-51 Navy destroyer programs and the level of funding for efforts such as the Army’s Stryker vehicle, Marine Corps’ developmental Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, and Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
General Dynamics overall gave House defense appropriators at least $139,000, according to an analysis of the CRP tally.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] employees gave the subcommittee’s members at least $167,000, making it the top defense firm donor to HAC-D members, the data shows. By contrast, other industry donations to the panel were at least: Boeing [BA], $82,000; Raytheon [RTN], $67,000; Northrop Grumman [NOC], $53,000; and SAIC [SAI], $50,000. Smaller firms ponied up as well, such as defense-electronics-systems supplier DRS Technologies, now a subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica, whose employees donated at least $98,000 to HAC-D members.
Lockheed Martin workers concentrated their generosity toward House defense appropriators on Rep. Kay Granger (R-Tex.), giving her at least $58,000, according to CRP data. Granger’s Ft. Worth district includes Lockheed Martin facilities tied the F-16, F-22, and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets.
The HAC-D weighed in this past session on a variety of Lockheed Martin programs, including those aircraft as well as the Air Force’s C-130 cargo hauler, and the Navy’s LCS and VH-71 presidential helicopter.
Murtha was the top House defense appropriations recipient of donations from General Dynamics, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman employees; Young was the HAC-D member who received the most from Raytheon and DRS; and Moran topped the list of HAC-D donations from SAIC, according to the CRP-tallied data.
Meanwhile, the company that ranks as the top donor this past election cycle for the highest number of HAC-D members is not a defense firm, but a Washington, D.C., lobbying shop with a healthy roster of industry clients.
Employees of The PMA Group, run by former HAC-D staffer Paul Magliocchetti, donated more than $200,000 to members of that same panel, according to CRP and FEC data.
The lobbying company ranked as the top donor for the four Democrats who have the most seniority on the HAC-D after Murtha. They are: Reps. Peter Visclosky (Ind.), who garnered at least $59,000 from The PMA Group; Panel Vice Chairman Norm Dicks (Wash.), who received at least $30,000 from the company; Moran, who collected at least $38,000 from the lobbying ship; and Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), who raised at least $27,000 from the firm. The PMA Group employees also donated to two retiring HAC-D members: Reps. Bud Cramer (D-Ala.), who ranked after Kaptur in seniority, and David Hobson (R-Ohio), the number-two Republican on the panel.
All House members and one-third of Senators who sought to keep their seats ran for reelection last month.
Senators’ post-election campaign finance reports, due to the FEC Dec. 5, still are being analyzed by CRP. An early analysis, which does not reflect all activity, shows the top Senate recipients of defense-industry donations this past election cycle to be, in order: Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Obama, McCain, and Clinton were candidates for president. Obama, the president-elect, has resigned his Senate seat and tapped Clinton to be secretary of state. McCain, the failed GOP presidential nominee, has returned to the post of ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs and on which Collins serves. Stevens, the former Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee ranking member, lost his reelection bid.