$478,000 donated in Rep. Dicks' name

Boeing gave $10,000 earlier this year to one of Congressman Norm Dicks' favorite charities, the National Guard Youth Foundation.

So did Boeing's archrival, EADS, the parent company of Airbus.

But that's small change compared to another defense contractor, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, which gave $100,000 to the youth foundation's gala dinner in February honoring Dicks, a Bremerton Democrat, for his staunch support of the charity.

TriWest followed that up with a $50,000 contribution to another charity event hosted by Dicks and four other members of the powerful defense-appropriations subcommittee that doled out $459 billion in contracts this year.

Some say these so-called honorary contributions are one more way for companies and campaign donors to curry favor with members of Congress.

"This is a new stealthy way to retain influence with favorite and most helpful lawmakers. It shows you have similar interests as someone like Norm Dicks and that can be nothing but helpful to your long-term goals," said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for the nonprofit Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Such contributions are being disclosed this year for the first time. Firms and lobbyists now are required to report when they give money to charities that in some way honor members of Congress and certain executive-branch officials.

Dicks far and away leads members of the Washington state delegation in being named in these contributions. In the first six months of 2008, he was reported as honoree — almost always with several other members of Congress — in charitable contributions totaling $478,000.

The vast share of donations linked to Dicks come from three events: the youth-foundation dinner honoring Dicks and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., for their advocacy; the Armed Forces Foundation Congressional Gala hosted by Dicks and four other congressmen; and the Prevent Cancer Foundation's Spring Gala chaired by Dicks and three other members of Congress and their spouses.

Influential leader

Dicks is named more than other members of Washington's delegation in the new reports because he's an influential member of the defense subcommittee that controls half of all federal discretionary spending and half of all earmarks, Ashdown said. (None of Dicks' 19 earmarks this year went to firms that named him in honorary contributions.)

Dicks said there's nothing improper about the contributions. Just because companies like EADS give to a charity doesn't mean they gain any favor with him. A Boeing ally, Dicks has been fighting with its competitor EADS over a proposed Air Force refueling tanker contract that both companies want.

"I try to call all issues of national security on merits. It doesn't matter who the companies are and what they contributed," Dicks said, noting that congressional rules prohibit him from soliciting for charities.

Dicks also said the new reports can be misleading because firms and lobbyists now must report honorary contributions to events that members of Congress attended, even when no lobbying occurred.

"I've never been lobbied at events I've attended that I can recall. At most they say 'Can we come up to (your office) to talk to you?' " he said.

And "honoree," as he is called on some reports, is a misnomer, he added, because contractors may be donating to support a charity they like rather than to pay tribute to a featured guest such as Dicks.

"I think they do it because they like the cause, because these are things the industry supports," he said.

That's the case with Boeing's contribution, said company spokesman Doug Kennett, who said the $10,000 gift to the National Guard Youth Foundation dinner was "absolutely not" intended to influence Dicks.

Soft lobbying

Scott Celley, a vice president at TriWest Healthcare, said the same goes for his company. It's a coincidence, Celley added, that his company gave to two charities, the National Guard Youth Foundation and Armed Forces Foundation, that also feted Dicks this year.

TriWest provides health insurance to military families in 21 states through a Pentagon contract. Celley says the company has a record of backing military-related charities. It sponsored the youth-foundation dinner with a $100,000 check because it likes the group's boot camp-like academies for high-school dropouts.

"In some cases we committed to support organizations before we knew which individuals would be honored at their events," Celley said.

But TriWest also is competing for a crucial contract. The company has submitted a $2 billion bid to renew a five-year deal with the Department of Defense that expires this year.

And Dicks is a well-known advocate for the National Guard Youth Foundation. He played a key role in establishing a foundation academy — funded by state and federal tax dollars — in Bremerton. The academy will serve about 300 dropouts a year when it opens next year. Dicks serves on the foundation's honorary board of directors.

In all, seven defense contractors gave $242,500 to two youth-foundation dinners honoring Dicks.

Another contractor, Massachusetts-based Raytheon gave $6,000 to the Admiral Theatre Foundation in Bremerton and named Dicks as an honoree.

Dicks is the honorary fundraising chairman for the historic theater's foundation.

Raytheon has employees in Kitsap County working on torpedoes at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Keyport and is a "significant community sponsor" of the theater, said Ruth Enderle, its executive director.

Such donations aren't necessarily bad, said Ashdown, who has watchdogged defense spending in Washington, D.C., for a decade.

"There's nothing outrageous at all about giving to something that helps a National Guard entity," he said. "I think it's a soft lobbying tactic that can make lawmakers think you're in their camp and loyal to their interests."

Dicks also was named as honoree in contributions that don't appear related to defense spending. They include $19,547 from Nike to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and $200,000 from Wal-Mart to the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

A time-honored tradition

Other Washington members lagged far behind in the reports for the first half of 2008.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, was named as honoree, along with other members of Congress, in contributions totaling $64,000. The biggest was $50,000 from Wal-Mart to Running Start, a nonprofit that encourages women to run for political office.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray was listed as an honoree for contributions totaling $45,000, with most of that coming from a $30,000 contribution from the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association that honored 14 senators and representatives.

The rest of the delegation was barely mentioned in the reports.

Honorary contributions aren't as coveted as campaign donations that can help a politician in a tough election, noted Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations and lobbying. But they can only add luster to a donor's standing with members of Congress, she said.

"Donating to politician's pet projects is a time-honored tradition," Krumholz said. "The benefit may be less direct than a campaign contribution, but donors can continue to curry favor through means less obvious and often more difficult to track."

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com