Defense Firms’ Funds Fight ‘Peace’ Measure
Concerned by a Los Angeles city ballot measure aimed at achieving deep cuts in federal military spending, aerospace firms and defense contractors from across the country have been funneling money into the local campaign to defeat Proposition V, the “Jobs With Peace” initiative on Tuesday’s ballot.
Proposition V, one of three citywide measures before voters, would create an advisory council at City Hall to lobby for a shift in federal funds away from military purposes and into social and community programs. It also would call on administrators of private and public pension funds to dump their military-related investments.
The ballot measure, relying solely on lobbying efforts, would have uncertain impact on determining federal spending priorities, despite its ambitious intentions. Nevertheless, the effort to defeat Proposition V has drawn hundreds of thousands of dollars from some of the nation’s largest aerospace and military defense contractors, who fear that passage could spark similar efforts in other cities, causing economic harm.
Campaign finance records show that corporations in Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis and other cities have joined local aerospace companies and other opponents in contributing to the No on V Committee, including more than $50,000 in donations over the last week.
In its Oct. 23 campaign filing report, the No on V Committee, organized by Southern California aerospace industries, reported raising $300,000 in cash and loans, including $180,000 from the Hughes Aircraft Co.--or triple the amount raised by proponents of the initiative.
Among those donations were cash contributions of $50,000 from Hughes Aircraft, $30,000 from a division of TRW Inc. and $25,000 from Rockwell International, as well as $5,000 contributions each from the Boeing Co. in Seattle, Morton Thiokol Inc. in Chicago and McDonnell Douglas Corp. in St. Louis.
Last week, the No on V Committee reported receiving another $50,000 in contributions, including $5,000 from the Grumman Corp. in New York, $5,000 from the Sundstrand Corp. in Illinois and $2,500 from E-Systems Inc. in Texas--all firms with military contracts.
‘Not in the Best Interest’
Not all the contributors were aerospace firms, however. The Los Angeles office of Deloitte Haskins & Sells, a national accounting firm, contributed $10,000 against Proposition V because a company spokeswoman said the measure “is not in the best interests of the community.”
The money raised by opponents has been used mostly for television commercials, radio ads and billboards throughout the city warning that passage of the “Jobs With Peace” proposal would ravage the aerospace industry and cost thousands of defense-related jobs--a contention that proponents claim is misleading.
But Don Hanson, director of media relations for the Douglas Aircraft Division of McDonnell Douglas, said his parent corporation in Missouri contributed money to defeat Proposition V in the interests of the company’s 30,000 local workers. A cut in defense spending eventually would mean a loss of jobs, he said, and added, “We simply don’t feel that this would be good legislation.”
‘Political Blackmail’
Kris Vosburgh, a spokesman for the No on V Committee, said that the corporations also view the initiative as “part of a national agenda” by groups who are out to “harass the aerospace and high-tech industry.”
Advocates of Proposition V are distressed by the flow of money to oppose the measure and called the use of the job-threat tactic “political blackmail.”
“We really resent military corporations coming into the city to try and buy votes in Los Angeles,” said Larry Frank, the chief fund-raiser for the Jobs With Peace Committee. “And this initiative will mean more, not fewer, jobs for our local economy.”
Proponents of Proposition V have received few large donations themselves--one $5,000 donation, for example, came from the Seattle-based “Pacific Peace Fund.” Instead, they have relied largely on small contributions from individuals and some labor unions.
Door-to-Door Campaign
Lacking the money for media time, proponents of the initiative have relied on a door-to-door campaign, phone banks and volunteer help from a cadre of precinct workers that helped pass a city ballot measure two years ago symbolically backing the Jobs With Peace movement.
Proposition V, however, would take the more concrete step of formally creating an advisory council in City Hall, with a city-paid staff of three people, to direct lobbyists in Washington now representing Los Angeles.
If the measure passes, it will mark the first time that a city has established an office expressly to press Washington for a reduction in military spending and shift those dollars into social and community programs.
