Defense industry returns to GOP

By AUSTIN WRIGHT and ANNA PALMER | 4/23/12 10:54 PM EDT  

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75508.html#ixzz1t48ePplU

After holding its nose and going blue for two straight election cycles, the defense industry is returning to familiar territory, tacking hard right in its political giving in 2012.

Overall, the defense industry has contributed nearly $13 million to congressional and presidential candidates this cycle — putting it more than halfway toward its all-time high of $24.5 million in 2008, according to the most recent numbers compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Republicans have taken a commanding lead in scoring that cash, nabbing 60 percent of the industry’s contributions — as opposed to the slightly less than 50 percent they attracted in 2008 and 2010.

Weapons makers have a good policy reason to lean Republican this year: Their industry faces hundreds of billions of dollars in potential cuts to the Defense Department set to begin taking effect next year. And the budget plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), which was passed by House Republicans, would keep Pentagon spending well above the levels proposed by President Barack Obama, even as the plan slashes funding for entitlement programs such as Medicare.

But industry insiders argue that the shift has less to do with political ideology and more to do with simple math — congressional Republicans outnumber their Democratic colleagues.

Whether giving is all about supporting friends or backing the majority is tough to suss out in the world of influence, but industry insiders are nodding to both.

Veteran defense lobbyist Jim Dyer said it’s easy to spot what’s behind this cycle’s shift.

“In a word — incumbency,” said the Podesta Group lobbyist, whose clients include defense giants Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics.

The numbers back him up: On a list of the Top 20 recipients of defense-industry money, nonincumbents are virtually nonexistent. In fact, there are just three challengers represented: GOP presidential hopefuls Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, along with Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who is vying to unseat Missouri’s Democratic senator, Claire McCaskill.

Defense contractors such as General Dynamics also said incumbency plays a role in political action committee contributions, though they emphasized that a member’s positions on the issues matter, too.

“Those are the folks that are here. Those are the folks that are making decisions now, today, and it’s very easy to figure out where they stand on issues that we feel are most important,” said General Dynamics spokesman Kendell Pease. “We continue to support those folks, both House and Senate, who support those issues that we feel are most important.”

The company’s political donations — measured by contributions from its PACs and employees — follow a trend that holds true for each of the top five defense contractors and for the industry at large: In the 2008 and 2010 cycles, General Dynamics split its giving evenly among Democrats and Republicans. This cycle, the company favors Republicans, with 55 percent of its $846,174 in contributions directed toward the GOP.

For the other companies in the top five — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon — the pattern is even more apparent. Lockheed, which ranked first in political giving for the 2008 presidential cycle and is leading so far in 2012, had an even split between the two parties in 2008 but this year favors Republicans, 63 percent to 37 percent.

Lockheed Martin spokesman Christopher Williams said the defense contractor supports Democrats and Republicans at the state and federal level “based on their level of interest and commitment in national security, homeland security and other issues of importance to the corporation, including education and technology.”

The breakdown this year marks a return to the industry’s historical norm: The average since 1990 has been about 60-40 in favor of the GOP.

The top recipient of defense-industry money among all politicians, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), has received $393,800. As chairman, McKeon has been a leader in the fight to block sequestration, the hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to the Pentagon budget set to begin taking effect next year.

“It doesn’t make any sense to support someone who isn’t thinking in the way that you’re thinking,” said Bill Lennox, a senior vice president at Goodrich Corp. Through its PAC, Goodrich, a Fortune 500 aerospace company that holds both civil and military contracts, has donated about $75,000 to political campaigns this cycle — with 56 percent of that money going to Republicans.

Lennox, a retired Army lieutenant general who served as the 56th superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, said many former conservative Blue Dog Coalition members and moderate Democrats — such as former Reps. Ike Skelton of Missouri, Chet Edwards of Texas and Gene Taylor of Mississippi — were wiped out in 2010, leaving fewer defense-friendly Democrats in office. “That’s a pretty hefty group right there,” Lennox said of the former Blue Dogs. “They were very knowledgeable on defense and had a lot of throw-weight.”

Still, there are several Democrats high up on the list. And Dyer, a longtime lobbyist who represents a number of top defense contractors, said there are lawmakers on the left worth supporting, despite the industry’s rightward shift.

“I would like to say to you, as a Republican, that my party is better on national security issues,” Dyer said. “But the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of Democrats now in Congress — in both the House and the Senate — who have very strong credentials on national defense and have risen to positions of leadership.”

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), for instance, has raked in $144,500 this cycle from the defense industry. Ruppersberger, ranking member on the Intelligence Committee and a member of the Armed Services Committee, is running for reelection this year against Maryland state Sen. Nancy Jacobs, a Republican.

And Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, has received $140,000 in industry money — putting him at sixth among all politicians.

The one big anomaly is Rep. Ron Paul, who’s popular among defense-industry workers, despite his opposition to just about everything they do. The Texas Republican supports a rapid withdrawal from the war in Afghanistan and, as president, would work to impose drastic cuts on the Pentagon. Still, he ranks fifth among all politicians in donations from the defense industry, at $143,372. That number puts him less than $100 behind Romney.

Obama, by comparison, ranks second among all politicians, having received $191,194 this cycle from the defense industry.

“A lot of those Paul supporters tend to be veterans, and veterans are not always pro-war,” said Benjamin Friedman, a research fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. “I don’t think that they’re gambling that he’s going to change his mind about everything.”

He added: “It’s some indication that it’s actually purer money than you might think, in that they might actually like him.”