According to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), Senator John Kerry is possibly the largest benficiary of war contracts in the U.S. Congress.

Democrat Senator Kerry and Republican Congressman Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin easily outpaced 149 colleagues who reported defense-related earnings.

The value of defense investments by members of Congress is between $78.7 million and $195.5 million—a hefty increase, says Lindsay Meyer on CRP’s Capital Eye news site:

“In 2004, the first full year after the Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers—both hawks and doves—had between $74.9 million and $161.3 million invested in companies under contract with the Department of Defense.

“As the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have expanded and transformed, so, too, has the need for goods and services that extend beyond helicopters, armored vehicles and guns. Giant corporations outside of the defense sector, such as Pepsico, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, have received defense contracts and are all popular investments for both members of Congress and the general public.

“So common are these companies, both as personal investments and as defense contractors, it would appear difficult to build a diverse blue-chip stock portfolio without at least some of them.”

A spokesman for Kerry referred to family trusts in which the Senator is a beneficiary. That is, he shares in the profits but does not make investment decisions.

In 2006, members of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees had between $32 million and $44 million in companies with large defense contracts. But Senator Kerry avccounted for most of this all by himself—somewhere between $28.9 and $38.2 million.

The Democrats have more cash invested in defense industries than Republicans. In 2006 the Democrat average was $3,700,000, the Republican $578,000.

you can read Lindsay Renick Mayer's article at

http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?id=342&format=print

Bringing home the bacon

The “peace party” politicians’ investment pattern reflects that of the states they represent.

The “bluest” states—those where the most votes are cast for liberal Democrat candidates— are always among the largest recipients of Department of Defense contracts.

Massachusetts, perhaps the most “liberal” state of all, also enjoys the highest per-capita infusion of funds from the Defense Department.

For example, the Commonwealth is home to Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker. Besides the U.S. military, Raytheon also supplies many other nations, notably Israel. Last year the corporation won a $284 million contract with Pakistan for advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles.

Massachusetts owes its position as a leading defense contractor primarily to the technology sector. The state’s economic development office and the Massachusetts High-Technology Council have been relentless lobbyists for more military contracts.

A special focus is the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization project. Wilmington-based Textron Systems already has more than $100 million worth of FCS contracts.

Cambridge, a city which issues bumper stickers proclaiming itself the “City of Peace,” is awash in Defense and CIA money, thanks in large part to the presence of Harvard and MIT.

MIT is itself one of the largest defense contractors in the country. Research funded by and for the military and intellifence establishments are crucial to its operations. In the early 1990s, when it seemed possible that the collapse of the USSR might lead to defense cutbacks, there was some concern over the Institute’s survival.

In 2005 a single Air Force contract brought MIT $3.17 billion.

Defense work is not an unalloyed benefit to the people who must live nearby. In West Concord, a massive cleanup is still underway at the site of Starmet corporation, where depleted uranium munitions were manufactured from 1970 through 1999.

Local environmentalists protested for years before the U.S. Army agreed to pay for the cleanup. Now the Commonwealth can add those cleanup payments to the state’s defense receipts.