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June 29, 2005

MZM's Virginia Connections extensive

By Barnie K. Day

Let's see...

A California congressman's documents under federal grand jury subpoena. A defense contractor with several operations in Virginia. Virgil Goode's largest contributor during his last campaign. The Virginia Tobacco Commission. One of George Allen's former cabinet secretaries, with past ties to Pat Robertson's Regent University. The Warner Administration's Governor's Opportunity Fund. President Bush's war on terror. And Katherine Harris, Florida's former secretary of state, maven of Bush-Gore fame.

Could there possibly be a single, common threat that runs through this?

There is: MZM, Inc., the Washington-based security firm that has enjoyed exponential growth in revenues since the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Said the Washington Post Wednesday, in a piece by Renae Merle and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum:

"A federal grand jury in Southern California has subpoenaed documents from Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, his lawyer said yesterday in a written statement. Prosecutors have been examining the congressman's relationship with Mitchell J. Wade, the owner of District-based defense contractor MZM, Inc.

"In 2003, Wade bought the California Republican's home near San Diego for $1.675 million. He later resold it for a $700,000 loss. For the past year, Cunningham has been living rent-free while in Washington on a 42-foot yacht owned by Wade."

Cunningham, a member of the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, told the Post that he had done nothing wrong.

Okay. I'd say that settles that.

Wade stepped down, though, because of the investigation, according to the Post, and his duties were split between Frank Bragg, Jr., who served as the company's chief operating officer and Kay Cole James, who took up the duties of chief operating officer. Now they have stepped down, too.

James was George Allen's Secretary of Health and Human services during his term as Virginia's governor. She is a former member of the Fairfax County School Board and Virginia's State Board of Education, and has served on the boards of the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Focus on the Family and the Center for Jewish and Christian Values. She is a former dean at Robertson's Regent University.

On Sunday, Peter Hardin, writing for Media General News Service, fleshed out the MGM-Virginia link in a Daily Progress, in Charlottesville. Said he:

"In Virginia, an array of elected officials, including Rep. Virgil H. Goode, Jr. of the 5th District, has welcomed MZM. It has field offices in Albemarle County, Ruckersville and Martinsville, all in Goode's district.

"When MZM selected Martinsville for a database and information technology operation in 2003, Goode was credited as 'instrumental in securing this project for Virginia,' according to a Nov. 3 news release from Gov. Mark R. Warner's office.'"

The Virginia Tobacco Commission, on which I now sit, ponied up
$250,000 for the Martinsville project, as did the Governor's Opportunity Fund.

According to the Daily Progress, during the 2003-2004 period, MZM was the largest single contributor of campaign funds--$48,551-to Goode's re-election effort, and MZM-related donations during the 2005-2006 election cycle top the list again, totalling $38,625 to date.

The paper reported that the company was also the leading contributor to Katherine Harris' 2004 re-election to Congress, giving the Floridian $50,000.

According to an Associated Press story carried Wednesday by the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Defense Department halted orders this month on at least one contract that paid MZM $163 million after the department's inspector general found that the contract "did not satisfy rules on competitiveness."

Whether the company's recent difficulties will negatively affect its Virginia operations is unclear at this writing. According to the Wednesday Post story, company management is "exploring strategic alternatives," one of which could be an outright sale.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a self-styled 'watchdog' group has asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate MZM, Wade and the company's political contributions activity, according to the Daily Progress.

Stay tuned. This one might get a little weirder. I doubt it. But it might.

Posted by amahler at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2005

Short and Sweet Message

It's primary day - get out there and cast your vote! :)

- Aaron

Posted by amahler at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2005

Reading Tuesday's Tea Leaves

By Barnie K. Day

The turn-out will be dismal-barely double digit, most observers think. The process-two statewide primaries running simultaneously-will be confusing. Most Virginians won't look up from their lives long enough to notice. But Virginia will get a look Tuesday. Across the country folks who, heretofore, couldn't find the Old Dominion on a map, will scrutinize Tuesday's returns as if the future of civilization depended on it.

Why is that? Several reasons.

Politically, there is not much to choose from this year. Only two states-Virginia and New Jersey-are electing governors this year. Secondly, there is no other state in the country fielding two legitimate contenders for the Presidency any time soon. Though neither has admitted contemplating a run for it, Mark Warner and George Allen make the short lists of potentials that those who do such calculations carry around in their heads. Then, of course, there is this: nowhere in the country is that schism, that battle for hearts and minds Republicans are waging among themselves, more pronounced than here in Virginia.

Will Rogers said, famously: "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." What would he have made of Virginia Republicans?

Sure, Virginia Democrats have their differences from time to time, they let the 'Double GG' issues-the God and guns stuff-divide them. Sometimes they do have trouble singing from the same sheet of music, but Virginia Republicans make them look-and sound-like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

If Virginia Democrats have a big tent-and they do-Virginia Republicans have a big one, too, and on the fringe outskirts of the Republican campground, several little ones-most requiring some secret word, certainly some idiotic belief, and ideological handshake to enter.

It is these little Republican tents, and which will win and which will lose among them, the calculating observers will watch Tuesday.

Will it be the glassy-eyed Kool-Aid drinkers of the far right, those who say they want the government off our backs but like the idea of Big Brother peeping into our bedroom windows and looking over our shoulders to see what we're reading, who 'sanctify' life, but have no problem with flushing away fetal cells that could advance stem cell research?

Will they be outflanked (if that's possible) by the 'flat-Earthers' those who sleep-walk in lockstep belief that you can build roads and schools and such without money (also sometimes referred to as the 'cold-fusionists)?

Or will Virginia Republicans on Tuesday shore up the Chichester wing of the party, those common sensers who catch javelins for a living, those who do the real work, the heavy lifting of Virginia governance?

How will you know? Not by the state-wide races, though, certainly, there are some implications there.

Kilgore will win the primary, but disaffected Republicans who go with Fitch on Tuesday, coupled with the moderates Potts is attracting, may be enough-eight-to-ten percentage points-to deny him a win over Kaine in November.

The best indicator of the future of the Republican Party of Virginia-and by extension, Virginia-will be what happens Tuesday in six House contests. The 'flat-Earth' wing of the party has challenged six Republican incumbents: Gary Reese, of Fairfax County, Joe May, of Loudoun County, Harry Parrish, Manassas, Edward Scott, of Culpepper, Bobby Orrock, of Caroline County, and Preston Bryant, of Lynchburg.

If these incumbents prevail Tuesday, the Chichester wing of the party will be enhanced and some of these 'little tent' fringe elements of the Republican Party will be diminished.

If they lose, it can only mean more intra-party discord, more division, more in-fighting more angst among Virginia Republicans-a prospect that surely has Dickie Cranwell, a fire-breathing partisan from Roanoke and the new, incoming chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, already licking his chops.

Posted by amahler at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)