By Emelie Rutherford
Before the final ballots were cast in yesterday’s elections, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) appeared to have beaten his GOP challenger on the fundraising front–garnering more than $3 million in donations, at least $1 million of which came in the unexpectedly close race’s final days.
And those last-minute donors include an array of senior executives from defense firms reliant on Murtha, the powerful House Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman. Election results were tallied after Defense Daily‘s deadline yesterday.
In mid-October Murtha was heavily favored to win reelection to an 18th term, though he trailed Republican William Russell, a retired Army colonel, in donations at the time.
Russell had raised $2.8 million in donations, more than Murtha’s $2.1 million, as of Oct. 15, according to the final comprehensive campaign finance reports due to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) before yesterday’s election.
Then, on Oct. 15, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted Murtha referring to his constituents as “racist,” and soon the congressional heavyweight and retired Marine colonel found himself in trouble with voters and scrambling for donations.
The National Republican Congressional Committee ran commercials slamming Murtha, as did the group Vets for Freedom, which was already angered by Murtha’s past statements criticizing the actions of Marines in Haditha, Iraq.
Murtha fought back–with the help of anti-Russell advertisements funded by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, fundraising pleas from Sen. Hillary Clinton (D- N.Y.), and a visit on the southwestern Pennsylvania campaign trail Monday by former President Bill Clinton.
And Murtha’s donations shot up. From Oct. 15 through Monday, Murtha pulled in $1 million in donations worth $1,000 or more, according to the FEC, swelling his fundraising tally to at least $3.1 million.
However, Murtha likely raised even more than that, because he and other congressional candidates did not report to the FEC donations of less than $1,000 received since Oct. 15, per the FEC’s campaign finance reporting schedule.
Russell, by contrast, reported raising $31,000–in donations of at least $1,000–from Oct. 15 through early this week, bringing his grand total to at least $2.8 million, less than Murtha’s rough $3.1 million sum.
The HAC-D chairman’s late-October donors include an array of defense executives.
“Once companies have done their maximum PAC (political action committee) contributions, Murtha starts squeezing the executives for personal contributions as well, and that has started big time,” a lobbyist said last week. A company PAC can contribute up to $5,000, while the individuals can donate up to $2,300.
Murtha’s late donors include Lockheed Martin [LMT] Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Stevens ($2,000 on Oct. 29); Northrop Grumman [NG] Chairman and CEO Ronald Sugar ($1,300 on Oct. 30); EADS North America Chairman and CEO Ralph Crosby ($1,000 on Oct. 30); General Dynamics [GD] Executive Vice President Charles Hall ($1,000 on Oct. 28); Textron [TXT] Executive Vice President Mary Howell ($2,300 on Oct. 29); Oshkosh Corp. [OSK] CEO Robert Bohn ($1,000 on Oct. 28); and SAIC [SAI] Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Prior ($1,000 on Oct. 28).
They also include DRS Technologies Chairman, President, and CEO Mark Newman ($2,300 on Oct. 31); Acutronic USA CEO Dominique E. Schinabeck ($1,000 on Oct. 31); Willcor, Inc. President and CEO Brian Willoughby ($2,000 on Nov. 3); Edmund Optics CEO Carmen Conicelli, Jr. ($1,000 on Oct. 27 and $1,000 on Oct. 29); and Edmund Industrial Optics CEO Robert Edmund ($2,000 on Oct. 28).
Additional donations since Oct. 15 came from Argon ST [STST] Executive Vice President and COO Kerry M. Rowe ($1,000 on Oct. 29); Gulfstream Aerospace (a division of General Dynamics) President Joseph Lombardo ($2,000 on Oct. 29); MTS Technologies Senior Vice President William Oakley ($1,000 on Oct. 27); Omni Tech Partners Inc. President Paul Maxin ($1,300 on Nov. 3); and Advanced Acoustic Concepts Executive Vice President Brian Boyle ($2,100 on Oct. 31).
Additional senior executives from companies including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Textron, EADS North America, SAIC, Oshkosh Corp., and DRS Technologies also gave money to Murtha since mid-October.
Corporate PACs that donated to Murtha late in the race, which were eligible to do so because they had not yet maxed out their contributions to him, hail from companies including AM General, Orbital Sciences Corp. [ORB], Computer Sciences Corp. [CSC] and EADS North America.
The PAC for the politically progressive group MoveOn.org was generous to Murtha–a critic of the Iraq war–donating $198,000 to him since Oct. 31 as he rushed to clear his name. And campaigns for a wide array of former and current Democratic lawmakers–including his close ally House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)–chipped in last-minute donations to Murtha, who is popular among some of his colleagues for helping them secure defense earmarks.
A chunk of Murtha’s late donations came from lobbyists. Employees at The PMA Group, the Washington, D.C. lobbying firm started by former Murtha staffer Paul Magliocchetti, gave the congressman $14,000 in recent days, and PMA’s PAC donated $5,000 to him on Oct. 30.
Most of Murtha’s post-Oct. 15 $1 million haul came after his campaign sent out a fundraising plea on Oct. 30, asking supporters to max their PAC and personal contributions so it could raise $1 million to compete in the final days (Defense Daily, Oct. 3).
“Cong. Murtha is in a brutal re-election campaign,” the solicitation said. “The ‘Swift Boaters’ have put up a candidate from Virginia and have raised millions of dollars against Cong. Murtha. In addition, other 527s and the [National Republican Congressional Committee] have spent millions to smear Cong. Murtha on TV, radio, and in newspapers.”