Enlarge Video 
Download Video
Video RSS
Shelby To Gates: Tanker Needed Now
By Tiffany Craig Special Assignment Reporter
Published: Fri, March 14, 2008 - 6:20 pm
Last Updated: Wed, March 19, 2008 - 11:58 am
Last Updated: Wed, March 19, 2008 - 11:58 am
Tiffany Craig
The cheers you could hear around Mobile were not echoing across the nation.
Boeing's loss has some politicians crying foul and grilling the Air Force during hearings on Capitol Hill.
We decided to dig a little deeper to see where some of the loudest politicians got campaign help.
Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt started a petition to try and stop the Northrop Grumman team from taking the tanker. He took a stand loud and clear. "An American tanker should be built by an American company with American workers."
It's no secret that Kansas is one of the states that would benefit from a Boeing win. It might also come as no surprise that Boeing is Tiahrt's 3rd biggest contributors ever. Interestingly enough, Northrop Grumman made his list at number 11.
Tiahrt's Top Contributors
-Boeing $82,465
-Northrop Grumman $ 46,500
Representative Norm Dicks is from Washington. He's the Congressman who's been crying foul for two weeks. "This isn't even a close call and that idea that this was some kind of a slam dunk is totally ridiculous."
It didn't take long to track down his number 1 contributor, Boeing. However, we also uncovered that Northrop made sizeable contributions to Dicks' campaign over the years as well.
Dicks' Top Contributors
-Boeing $126,500
-Northrop Grumman $88,500
We also did some digging into campaign contributions to Alabama's Congressional Delegation.
Senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions don't have either company in their top twenty contributors.
Congressman Jo Bonner, a Mobile native, only had Northrop Grumman on his top twenty list at number 10.
Bonner's Top Contributors
-Northrop Grumman $27,000
Our source for the campaign information is from a website called open secret.
Click here to look up campaign contributions
Look at the section called External Links (on the right of your screen) to see a breakdown of campaign contributions since 2001.
News Map
Email to a Friend 
Printer Friendly 
that is just pennies compared to all the contributions from unions , boeing sub companies etc