AREA FIRMS PAYING TO PLAY? FEDERAL CONTRACTS FLOW TO CONTRIBUTORS.

Byline: Lisa Friedman and Edward Barrera Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Nearly every defense contractor that Southern California lawmakers boasted securing federal funding for over the past three years also made political contributions, according to a review by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.

In the review of 32 private firms in Southern California that won money in federal spending bills since 2003, all but two made political donations to national or local lawmakers through their top executives, political action committees or Washington, D.C., lobbyists.

The companies gave more than $10.8 million nationally, with about $200,000 going to Southland lawmakers who championed their specific projects.

The companies, in turn, got more than $203.8 million in funding for everything from construction of unmanned aerial vehicles to fiber optic research.

``It has become a pay-to-play system,'' said Keith Ashdown, spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.

``If you want to get federal contracts or earmarks, you have to support and financially back those in Congress. It doesn't always mean you get want you want, but it opens the door.''

All of the contributions were within the legal limits, and the earmarks have not sparked any allegations of misconduct.

Southern California lawmakers maintain the donations did not influence their decisions to seek appropriations, and the companies said the contributions were made with no expectation of a return.

But two recent high-profile congressional influence-peddling scandals are putting such dealings under a microscope, highlighting what insiders say is a pervasive culture in which money opens doors on Capitol Hill.

``All of this is now under scrutiny, and everybody is scared to death,'' said Winslow T. Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C.

The newspaper review targeted projects that Southern California lawmakers announced they helped secure funds for since 2003, and used Federal Election Campaign reports and PoliticalMoneyLine.com, a nonpartisan, nonprofit public disclosure Web site, to analyze campaign contributions.

While millions of dollars were secured for public universities and local military bases, area congressional members also brought between $32 million and $106 million annually to defense contractors performing work in their districts.

Donors ranged from multibillion defense contractors such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman to smaller local companies.

Recipients included longtime champions of defense projects such as Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Long Beach, whose district is home to C-17 transport plane production, and lawmakers who lead key committees such as House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego.

They also included local lawmakers who rarely get involved in national defense issues such as Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs.

Donations ranged from $250 to $20,000.

``It's a very easy game of compound interest. You give thousands, you get millions,'' Ashdown said.

Lewis said he believes the vast majority of contractors and politicians operate ethically. But, he said, he is troubled by the cloud that disgraced former Rep. Duke Cunningham cast over Congress by accepting millions of dollars in bribes from defense contractors.

``There should never be a linkage,'' Lewis said. ``That's an unacceptable linkage, and I think the vast percentage (of lawmakers and companies) see it that way.''

Lewis, who is one of the House's biggest recipients of defense dollars from contractors and their lobbyists, said he supports projects on their merits.

``Anybody who comes to my office to talk about a defense system, it is an unacceptable process for them to mention fundraising to me. I do not recall anybody violating that rule,'' he said.

Still, he and others acknowledge that campaign contributions undeniably open doors.

``There's no doubt that contributions provide access,'' Lewis said.

Added Doug Fouquet, spokesman for General Atomics in San Diego, which donated more than $1 million nationally from its political action committee over the past three years, ``It's important that we communicate to our congressional representatives the importance of our projects, or they might not see the light of day.''

Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, was one of the region's highest recipients of defense dollars along with Lewis, Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, and Jane Harman, D-Los Angeles, the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

So far this campaign cycle, defense contractors have contributed $34,750 to McKeon, according to campaign reports. Over the past three years, companies in his district that he has announced he helped win federal funds donated more than $125,000.

Vista Controls in Santa Clarita, for example, donated $11,550 to McKeon, and this year won $2 million in the defense appropriations bill to make electronic upgrades to heavy armored vehicles.

Executives at H.R. Textron, also in Santa Clarita, for whom McKeon got $1.4 million this year to develop a guided dispenser system for future armed UAVs, donated $3,400.

General Atomics, which has won McKeon's support for several programs including its extended-range UAV system, has donated $40,000.

McKeon did not return a call to discuss the contributions.

``We pride ourselves on acting scrupulously,'' said General Atomic's Fouquet, who said the company's political action committee donates to lawmakers who share the company's philosophy.

In a few cases, companies gave little or nothing to local lawmakers who supported their projects.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, for example, announced he championed AeroVironment's funding for an unmanned aerial vehicle, yet campaign reports show no record of contributions from the company to Gallegly.

He also helped secure $1 million this year for Behavioral Science Technology Inc., an Ojai company that also did not donate to any lawmaker. Company officials did not return a call seeking comment.

Still, lobbyists for Zebra Technologies in Camarillo have donated $4,000 to Gallegly, who helped the company receive $1 million in 2004 to replace bar codes with radio frequency identifications to help the Army track military supplies.

``I have always fought for two priorities: what is in the nation's best interest and what is in the district's best interest,'' Gallegly said. ``I like to think people are supporting me because people like the job I'm doing philosophically.''

San Bernardino County is home to the only other company reviewed that, according to campaign records, secured money from federal appropriations bills but did not contribute to any lawmaker.

Certified Aviation Services, based at Ontario Airport and for which Lewis helped secure $8.5 million to convert Cessna planes into unmanned planes, did not return a call seeking comment.

Wheeler, a former aide to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who worked for years on defense appropriations, said that despite what lawmakers and companies say, the wheels of Washington are greased with campaign contributions.

``A competent congressional staff will check on whether or not a manufacturer made a contribution last year, and that will typically affect the enthusiasm with which the office seeks an earmark for the following year,'' Wheeler said.

While openly discussing fundraising is forbidden for both staff and lawmakers as well as contractors, ``both sides understand it's going to occur,'' he said.

It's a characterization Southland lawmakers and their aides deny.

But many acknowledge that Congress has a public perception problem that's going to be tough to change.

``I would love to see a system of reform that could take us to the meaningful elimination of contributions from private interest groups,'' said Lewis. ``But we're not going to be able to, that's the problem.''

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com