Good ol' J.D. Hayworth, coming through for his constituents

....the ones that give him money, anyway. Well, money other than the $162,100 (soon to be $168,500) that we pay him to represent *us*.

From the Phoenix Business Journal regarding the 2007 Defense Appropriations Bill -

"...Highlights for Arizona companies in the $427 billion include:

• $9.3 million for Robertson Aviation of Tempe to modify Black Hawk helicopters.
• $3.3 million for Dillon Arrow of Scottsdale for an aircraft mini-gun system.
• $1.2 million to Armor Holdings for installation of cockpit airbags on Black Hawk and Kiowa Warrior helicopters.

[snip]

"Our soldiers in the field need to know they are being given all the necessary tools to fight and win the war on terrorism," said Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth in announcing the bill's passage. " "

What JD didn't crow about, but is revealed with a cursory search of the FEC's database, is that these companies are just getting healthy return on their investments.

"What investments" you ask?

Why, their investments in JD, of course.

From the executives, and their wives when I could identify them from FEC records (since 1998):

Robertson Aviation : $42,600, with $5,250 of that going to TEAM PAC.

Dillon Arrow, aka Dillon Precision and/or Dillon & Associates: $15,500.

Armor Holdings: Nothing direct that I could find quickly, but they gave $51,500 to three PACs that, between them, gave $16,300 to JD. One of those PACs was Armor Holdings' own PAC, Armor Holdings Inc. Political Action Committee.

It should be noted that execs from all three companies contributed to many other politicians, but those politicians aren't from AZ CD5 (like 2 of the companies), and they aren't crowing about it.

Seems like that what JD lacks in integrity is made up for by brazenness. Not sure that's a good trade, at least not for us.

Note: I wasn't going to post tonight, but as I was reading the news, I came across the Business Journal article. I became curious, and decided to check the FEC's database. I found a couple of entries and took notes in WordPad. Then I kept finding more entries; so many, in fact that I had to open a spreadsheet to help track them.

Three hours later, I had a post.

I expect that I could have found more by cross-referencing other officers and looking for donations from family members from the same addresses, etc. However, it's late and time for some sleep.

Later!!