Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO running against US Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, is in San Diego County (Rancho Santa Fe) this evening for a fundraiser, which includes a $500-a-head reception (valet parking provided) and a $4,800-per-participant roundtable discussion (including a photo with Fiorina and a lapel pin.)
The invitation (pdf), published on the Fairbanks Republican Women Federated website (based in Rancho Santa Fe, not Alaska), includes a long list of fundraiser co-chairs and co-hosts. Do the due Googligance and you discover that most are executives in the defense industry, either as direct contractors or intermediaries working in contract negotiation or financing.
In fact, if you replace the sponsors with corporate logos (we couldn’t fit them all in), the event seems less like a fundraiser and more like a defense industry conference. See:
Also on the guest list are two San Diego County Congressmen: US Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Alpine, son of Rep. Duncan Lee Hunter, former chairman of House Armed Services Committee, after whom the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act was named) and US Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista, ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee and the richest member of the House of Representatives).
The party is at the home of Gene Ray, founder of Titan Corp., a military contractor that was linked to the prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq. The company† also paid $28.5 million in fines after it was accused of bribing the president of Benin. It was acquired by L-3 Communications in 2005.
Other defense and security industry sponsors include:
Bob Beyster, founder of SAIC
Linden Blue, vice chairman of General Atomics
Walter J. Zable, chairman and CEO of Cubic Corporation
Jim Edwards, senior VP and general counsel of Cubic Transportation Systems
John Warner, director of Cubic†
Darin Andersen, COO of ESET†
Eric Basu, president and CEO of Sentek Global
Dan Donoghue, senior VP of WBB Consulting and ex-president of Titan
Andrew Ivers, president of L-3 Linkabit, former VP of Engineering at Titan
Marshall Merrifield, CEO of Clark Security Products
Bryan Min, president and CEO of Epsilon Solutions†
Roy Paulson, president and CEO of Paulson Manufacturing
Joe Punaro, founding partner of BluestoneLogic and former director of ìfederal client solutions” for Dynology Corporation
Joel Reed, principal at Relational Advisers, which served as Titans financial advisor in the L-3 merger
Bill VanDeWeghe – managing director, RA Capital Advisors, specializing in defense
Dennis Kenneally, former commanding general of the California National Guard, former Maxim advisor and Save the World Air director
Doug Barnhart, founder and CEO of Douglas E. Barnhart Inc.
Duane Roth, CEO of Connect
Of course, paying into Fiorina’s campaign fund doesn’t buy a donor any special influence if she’s elect. It’s not like San Diego has a history of shady defense deals.
†Note: We would estimate the total contract amounts for each of these companies, but the Sunlight Foundation just declared USASpending.gov completely unreliable. — By Dave Maass. Cross-posted at San Diego City Beat