The Washington Post reports this afternoon that Northrop Grumman is moving its headquarters to Washington D.C.. Its manufacturing operations may be elsewhere, but the primary engine of profit for military contractors like Northrop Grumman is in Washington D.C., where the government contracts are awarded.

The truth is that Northrop Grumman has been heavily based in Washington D.C. for some time, with a small army of lobbyists working to persuade members of Congress to send profitable projects its way, and to keep the projects going long after they are of real military use. Reasoned discussion is among the tools Northrup Grumman lobbyists have at their disposal, but much more powerful is the money that the lobbyists bring to members of Congress, both directly and indirectly.

In the 2008 congressional campaign cycle, the Employees of Northrop Grumman Corporation Political Action Committee spent 1.6 million dollars, and it looks as if the 2010 campaign cycle will bring even higher amounts of spending for the PAC. So far, the Northrop Grumman PAC has spent just $4,000 shy of $1 million dollars on the 2010 congressional elections, with roughly two thirds of that going directly to political candidates. Spending on other lobbying efforts by Northrop Grumman last year dwarfed its campaign donations almost by a factor of 10 to 1, with $9,750,000 in expenditures.

Tracking all that money is a difficult task. Thanks to organizations such as the Center for Responsive Politics and the Sunlight Foundation, we have user-friendly interfaces with which to search out telling details.

Some of those details lead us to Representative Dan Lungren and Senator Jim DeMint, two Republican politicians who seem particularly eager to welcome the lobbyists of Northrop Grumman to Washington D.C. Both of them have had special fundraising events arranged for them by Northrop Grumman.

Last year, Senator DeMint held a “Defense Industry Breakfast” at Charlie Palmer’s Steakhouse. People from the “defense industry” who attended the event were required to pay DeMint between 500 and 2,000 dollars a piece. The Employees of Northrop Grumman Corporation Political Action Committee was an official host of the fundraising event for DeMint.

A similar breakfast was set up for Representative Lungren by Northrop Grumman. The cost for the breakfast was between 500 dollars and 2,000 dollars – but it wasn’t really bacon and eggs that was for sale.

Constituents in South Carolina and Carolina may expect Senator DeMint and Dan Lungren to be loyal to their interests. However, those constituents aren’t arranging parties where rooms full of people are all paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to gain the attention of DeMint or Lungren. Both of these politicians will need to win re-election this year, and it’s the voters who will deliver that re-election, but voters’ perceptions, when they aren’t independently educating themselves, are shaped by mass media campaign communications – and those communications are paid for by money raised at fundraising events such as the breakfasts hosted by Northrop Grumman’s PAC.