Glenn Nye Versus The Navy?
It’s not accurate to say that all of the seven Republicans competing for the right to take on U.S. Representative Glenn Nye are U.S. Navy veterans. Only six are. The other is a veteran of the Marines.
Are the Republicans of Virginia’s 2nd congressional tapping into some sort of discontent within the Navy against Congressman Nye? If political contributions are any sign of support, it would seem unlikely.
Nye has taken $8500 from military contractor Northrop Grumman’s PAC, $8,000 from military contractor Honeywell Inernational’s PAC – a total of 48,000 dollars from military contractors in the current cycle. Nye’s re-election campaign for 2010 has tens of thousands dollars in additional contributions so far from people working in the military contracting industry.
The intensity of Navy politicking seems to come from the fact that the Norfolk Naval Station is located within Glenn Nye’s congressional district, as is the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, Naval Air Station Oceana and the Navy’s Dam Neck Annex. The Marines’ Camp Pendleton is also within the district. The military – and military contracting – is the biggest industry in the coastal part of Virginia Glenn Nye represents.
That should not be to suggest that all Glenn Nye thinks about is the military. For example, tomorrow night, Congressman Nye will be attending the Black Eyed Peas concert in Washington D.C.
Do you like the Black Eyed Peas? How much did you pay for your tickets? Did you pay $1,500 each? That’s how much lobbyists and other power brokers will be paying for a ticket to enter Glenn Nye’s private suite at the Verizon Center, to watch the concert from on high, separated from rabble, and holding conversations with the congressman about relevant policy matters such as, for example, budget requests for projects conducted by military contractors.
