Randy "Duke" Cunningham has been on Capitol Hill since 1990. But the former "Top Gun" pilot announced recently that he will not run for reelection amid allegations that he accepted improper favors from defense contractors. The companies -- ADCS, Inc and MZM, Inc-- have both benefited from Cunningham's advocacy and intervention in his position as a Senior member of the House Appropriations Committee.

The fact that Cunningham is not running for reelection will have a big impact on companies in the San Diego area he represents. As Tim Ransdell, executive director of the nonpartisan California Institute for Federal Policy Research, notes, "all members of Congress are not created equal, and losing a member of the Appropriations Committee can deal a significant blow to an area*.. There are few positions in Congress where it's easier to bring in special projects for your home district than the Appropriations Committee."

ADCS, Inc.
This company specializes in converting documents into digital form using proprietary software, a task the Department of Defense needs as it modernizes it information services. Since 1999, the company has received $80 million in Pentagon contracts.

Brent Wilkes, the company's CEO, was one of President Bush's "Pioneers" in 2004, an elite group that pledged to gather $100,000 in contributions for the President's reelection bid. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wilkes and his wife Regina have donated $139,806 to state and federal law makers and "Political Action Committees" between 2001 and 2004.

The contributions seem to have paid off. On August 5th, the San Diego Union Tribune reported that in the past eight years, the Duke's "the defense appropriations subcommittee has repeatedly added funding for ADCS-related projects to the defense budget, even criticizing the Defense Department for not requesting the money itself."

The Duke has used his influence in other ways as well. When the Pentagon's Inspector General froze ADCS' contracts while the office looked into complaints from ADCS competitors alleging favoritism and inappropriate actions, Cunningham called Louis A. Kratz, an assistant deputy undersecretary of defense, asking that the funds be released. Wilkes also felt entitled enough to call and complain. The IG concluded that "irregular procedures" had been used, according to an August 18 Washington Post article and quoted Kratz as saying he had never before experienced anything close to their "meddling" and "arrogance." Wilkes "implied that it was his money," said the Undersecretary, even though the funding was earmarked for a program, not a company.

Wilkes and the Duke are right outside of DC too. In 2002, the San Diego-based Wilkes Foundation, chaired by Brent and Regina, honored Cunningham as someone who "dedicates their lives and careers to serving our country."

The Congressman got more than a plaque from Wilkes. Group W Advisors, a lobbying firm owned by Wilkes, has provided personal air transportation Representative Cunningham and other high-profile passengers like House Majority Leader Tom Delay. These flights are what investigators are looking closely at now. The San Diego Union Tribune points out that the flights may be legal, but they serve as prime examples of how federal contractors and lobbyists use travel and other perks to make friends on Capitol Hill. Senator Russ Feingold, a long time advocate of campaign finance reform, describes the dynamic: "making a corporate jet available for key members of Congress to use for their personal or business travel is a nice way to curry favor with people who can get earmarked appropriations included in massive spending bills, not to mention the chance to put your lobbyist on a five hour flight in the next seat."

MZM, Inc.
Federal investigators are also looking into the Duke's relationships with Mitchell J. Wade, the founder of MZM, a defense contractor specializing in "solving enigmatic" problems for the government and the private sector. Wade stepped down in June, and Veritas Capital, a private equity firm, is buying the company.

As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Cunningham pushed for funding for MZM's classified programs. The company has had $160 million in Pentagon contracts since 2002. The trouble surfaced in June when the Pentagon cut off new work for the firm through its most lucrative contract because a draft Inspector General report found that it had no been competitively awarded under current rules.

News reports of shady favors for the Duke surfaced soon after. It turns out that Wade and Cunningham are pretty close. Wade bought Cunningham's home near San Diego in late 2003, reselling it 3 months later at a $700,000 loss. The home had not been listed with a realtor, leading investigators to wonder if Wade inflated the initial price to gain favor with Cunningham. It's a tidy profit for the Representative, who bought the house with his wife for $400,000 in the 1980s. The Cunningham's new home was a sprawling estate in the upscale Santa Fe community of New Rancho which they bought for more than $2 million. Under the heat lamp of investigation, the pair says they will sell the house and donate the proceeds to charity.

While in Washington, Cunningham lived rent free on Wade's yacht on the Potomac River, paying only the maintenance fees. Cunningham continues to deny wrongdoing, but he has asked his financial contributors to donate to his legal support.

As Gary Jacobsen, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, notes that Cunningham is not the only one being lured by defense contractor perks. "Its got to be tempting to allow yourself to be flattered, buttered up, helped, given favors and so forth. It's hard to refuse them unless you very consciously recognize that it is one of the permanent ethical challenges of that life."