Potential Murtha successor Norm Dicks knows the favor factory
By Luke Rosiak Feb 10 2010 3:56 p.m. 1 commentThe abrupt passing of Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.) left many wondering who would replace the King of Pork as chair of the Defense Appropriations subcommitteebut anyone hoping his replacement might bring relief from a reputation for trading favors, rewarding campaign contributors and steering lucrative contracts to home districts would likely be disappointed by the pool of potential successors.
Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer floated the name of Norm Dicks, whose home state of Washington houses Boeing Co., as the likely next chair. Boeing is the second-largest recipient of federal contracting money, at $22.3 billion in fiscal year 2009 (two-thirds of which was not competed for), and his largest campaign bankroller.
Second is the now-defunct PMA Group, the lobby shop specializing in procuring earmarks for its clients which infamously collapsed amidst an FBI investigation into its contributions to members of the subcommittee, with several of its former lobbyists founding the defense-centered Flagship Government Relations. (Read the Sunlight Foundations previous coverage of PMA here.)
Dicks doled out more earmark money than all but 9 of his colleagues in the House in fiscal year 2008, with 20 out of 80 earmarks going to organizations that had actively lobbied that yearmany employing PMAand much of the remainder going to local governments.
In terms of industries, lobbyists have been Dicks largest contributorsonly 15 onetime House members, with Murtha topping the list, have received more from them in the last 21 years--followed by lawyers, defense aerospace and defense electronics, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Of the nearly one million dollars hes received from the defense industry and its employees in that timespan, nearly 90 percent has come directly from corporate political action committees.
Defense contractors Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, SAIC Inc., Raytheon, and BAE Systems all rank among the top contributors of the man slated to wield enormous influence over Pentagon spending.
Of Murthas passing, Dicks said in a statement Monday: The country has lost a real patriot; the Congress has lost a real workhorse; and I have lost a great friend.
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A couple of details. the Boeing Co moved to Chicago several yers ago. Although the bulk of its factories are in the Puget Sound area, major factories are also in Wichita, Huntsville, and now S. Carolina. Dicks is a man of limited education and would probably not measure up today. His claim to fame is as a Husky football player. His district has several large military installations of long standing (Bremerton Naval Shipyard, Trident base, etc.) Otherwise, it is rural and poor, with no other major industries. He is a very polite and nice man, but he comes from an age when bringing the pork back to Washington State was the only measure of a politician's success (Jackson, Magnuson, Brock Adams, etc.)