Fla. senators get funds for military companies, many of them donors
By WES ALLISON and ANITA KUMAR
Published March 11, 2006
St. Petersburg Times
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WASHINGTON - The biggest winner in the appropriations requests, or earmarks, made by Florida's U.S. senators is the defense industry. And in the game of fundraising, the senators have won big from the defense industry.

Republican Sen. Mel Martinez and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson each helped secure hundreds of millions of dollars for military projects, mostly in Florida, in the 2006 federal budget.

Much of it will go to defense contractors like Boeing, Honeywell, General Dymanics and Armor Holdings of Jacksonville, which together have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the senators' campaigns.

Both senators assure that the funding requests they endorse are unrelated to who contributes to their campaigns.

Martinez's office said his Florida-based defense earmarks total $316-million for 2006. The Times found that political action committees and employees of at least eight companies Martinez helped with earmarks made contributions totaling more than $33,000 since 2003, according to federal records.

Because of his seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Nelson was especially prolific, helping to obtain $916-million for defense projects, about two-thirds of which will be spent in Florida, his staff said.

The Times found that since 2003, Nelson has received $108,750 from 13 companies he has received money for.

The senators' offices say they ask for funding for projects based on merit, not donations. Florida has 21 major military installations, and Enterprise Florida estimates that defense-related spending totals $44-billion each year - nearly 10 percent of the state's economy. But major beneficiaries also are major contributors. A sampling:

Employees of Armor Holdings, which got $351-million for Humvee armor this year, have given Nelson $13,000.

Honeywell got $13-million for ballistic missile range safety. Its PAC has given Martinez $8,000 and Nelson $6,000.

Martinez and Nelson helped get $1-million for radar upgrades at Eglin Air Force Base through a contract to BAE Systems North America. Its PAC has given Martinez $5,000 and Nelson $10,000.

Boeing's PAC and employees have given $5,370 to Martinez and $10,500 to Nelson. The two secured $2-million for Boeing for Florida-based projects this year.

Martinez spokesman Ken Lundberg said the spending requests for at least five of those eight companies came directly from the military. "The senator is proud of the work he has done in securing funding that is critical to the protection of our country and that helps to create jobs in Florida," he said.

Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said all requests for funding are vetted by staffers, then considered by the senator.

"At no time do any outside political activities of the boss enter that process," McLaughlin said.

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.

FLORIDA PROGRESSIVES SUPPORT BRIAN MOORE (July 4, 2006)

Bill Nelson is one of the least progressive Democrats in the United States Senate, with a record that has earned him a progressive legislative score of only 33 percent and a right wing legislative score of 55 percent. It is no exaggeration to call Senator Bill Nelson a "right wing Democrat."

Unfortunately, there is no progressive Democrat challenging Senator Nelson's nomination this year. So, with no alternative within the Democratic Party, what is a progressive voter in Florida to do? The answer is simple: Look outside the Republican Party.

Republican Katherine Harris is out of the question, of course. She appears to be, in addition to being an extremist ideologue loyalist to George W. Bush, a criminally corrupt back room dealer as well. No self-respecting resident of Florida could support Harris for Senate.

With the Democrat and the Republican candidates both leaning toward the right wing, progressive Floridians had best look to an independent: Brian Moore. While Bill Nelson has been a big supporter of the Iraq War, Brian Moore opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq from the start.

However, Brian Moore is more than just an antiwar candidate. He is a genuine and thorough progressive. As chairman and co-founder of the Nature Coast Coalition for Peace & Justice in Citrus County, Moore has been working as an advocate of progressive values for years. Brian Moore is the real deal.

Will Brian Moore win the senate election this year? The chances are not good. Bill Nelson is a shoe-in, with Republicans abandoning the increasingly bizarre campaign of Katherine Harris in favor of Nelson's Republican-lite approach. However, by voting for Brian Moore, the progressive citizens of Florida can send a message to Senator Bill Nelson and the leadership of the Florida Democratic Party that they can't count on the votes of Florida's progressives any more.

Bill Nelson's record in the United States Senate is proof that we cannot simply assume that if a politician is a Democrat, he or she will promote progressive values in public office. If the Democrats want the support of progressives, they'll have to earn it. In Florida this year, lodging a strong protest vote with Brian Moore for Senate is a great way to make that point clear.

While most votes on missile defense funding that reach the floor of the House or Senate are virtually party line votes, among the few Democrats who have consistently voted against more rigorous testing and against cutbacks in missile defense spending are Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Ben Nelson of Nebraska (the two Senators are not related). Bill Nelson is among the top 15 recipients of contributions from missile defense contractors in the Senate, while Ben Nelson ranks in the top 20 with receipts of $49,500 from missile defense contractors from 2001 to 2006. Both men voted against an FY 2005 amendment by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) calling on the secretary of defense to certify that the Ground-Based Midcourse element of missile defense has succeeded in operationally realistic tests before it can be deployed. They also voted no on an amendment by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) to transfer more than $515 million in funds from the Ground-Based Midcourse element of missile defense to programs designed to stem the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.


Both Senators have important missile defense operations in their states. Florida has the third largest "space economy" in the U.S., behind Texas and California. And Nebraska’s Strategic Air Command (now known as Stratcom) has expanded its mission to include not only the logistics of nuclear weapons deployment but also the functions formerly performed by the U.S. Space Command. As Sen. Ben Nelson noted about a year after the reorganization occurred, the "new, revamped Stratcom" would be taking on "four new missions, including the management of a layered missile defense system."

ARMS TRADE RESOURCE CENTER

Tangled Web 2005: A Profile of the Missile Defense and Space Weapons Lobbies by William D. Hartung with Frida Berrigan, Michelle Ciarrocca, and Jonathan Wingo

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is the latest in a series of reports by the World Policy Institute’s Arms Trade Resource Center

"Five Democrats joined 48 Republicans in voting to table, or kill, Feinstein's amendment. They were Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Zell Miller of Georgia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, whose state is a candidate for the new pit-production site. " (as quoted in The Los Angeles Times by Nick Anderson, September 17th, 2003)

Feinstein Amendment No. 1655:
"To prohibit the use of funds for Department of Energy activities relating to the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, Advanced Weapons Concepts, modification of the readiness posture of the Nevada Test Site, and the Modern Pit Facility, and to make the amount of funds made available by the prohibition for debt reduction."

Paid for by the Brian Moore for US Senate Florida Committee.  Fred Ulmer, Treasurer.