Nextel Communications Inc. of Reston is one of the few companies on The Post's list bucking the trend toward smaller contributions. Four years ago, the nation's sixth-largest wireless phone service provider "played a nominal role in the election," said Tim O'Regan, a Nextel spokesman. In 2000, Nextel and its employees contributed $22,600 to presidential candidates, the RNC and the DNC.
Since then, Nextel has been lobbying Congress over airwave rights. This past summer, Nextel was the official wireless provider for both party conventions, making a $500,000 in-kind contribution of handsets and BlackBerrys to the organizing committees of both national party conventions. After the conventions, the equipment was returned to Nextel, O'Regan said. Nextel also gave $11,290 to the Republican Governors Association and $7,500 to the Democratic Governors' Association.
Nextel, however, is an exception. For the most part, local companies and their employees gave less and lobbying firms supplanted them as the top source of presidential campaign cash among local businesses.
This election cycle, 14 of the top 20 donors in 2004 are law firms. Employees of law firms gave a combined total of $2.7 million to presidential candidates and the Republican and Democratic parties, compared with a combined total of $2.1 million during the 2000 election cycle.
The growth in political contributions from lobbyists partly reflects the increase in individual campaign limits under the campaign finance reform act, Noble said. Individuals can now give $2,000 to federal candidates -- twice as much as they could before -- and $25,000 to national party committees per year. Before, they could contribute up to $20,000.
Defense contractors and their employees are the next largest group of donors on The Post list, contributing $354,798.
Lockheed Martin employees, who contributed a total of $222,793, gave overwhelmingly to Republican presidential candidates and committees. Chaudet said the political leanings of Lockheed employees reflect in part the fact that much of Lockheed's workforce is spread across Republican-leaningstates. "We're in southern California, the south and up the east coast. Think of what's happened in the last 15 years. The demographics have shifted. There are not too many southern states that are Democratic," Chaudet said.
General Dynamics Corp. employees gave largely to Republican candidates and the RNC, too. Going against the tide was chief executive Nicholas D. Chabraja, who cut a $25,000 check to the DNC. (He also made a $10,000 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee.) A company spokesman declined to comment on the contribution.
Defense spending is not likely to shift dramatically under a Democratic administration, but most in the industry strongly back Bush's willingness to fund homeland security and military initiatives, said Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, an Arlington-based government contractors association. Contractors also support the current administration's emphasis on modernizing government by hiring private companies to do work formerly performed by federal employees.
"I think there is some real concern about some of the rhetoric that we see coming out of the Kerry campaign," Soloway added. Kerry has said he is against competitive sourcing, a program that asks government workers to compete with private-sector employees for their jobs. Also, Kerry said one way he would cut the deficit is by eliminating up to 100,000 federal contractors.
