CA-25: The Heat is On Rep Buck McKeon Over Defense Contractor Contributions

There is another expose out today linking Santa Clarita Valley Republican Congressman Buck McKeon, his wife Patricia McKeon who is a candidate for the California Assembly and the defense industry.

In past years, it has not been surprising that the chairmen of the House of Representatives of the Armed Services Committee have taken many large campaign contributions from defense contractors. It has happened through many sessions of Congress and included both Republican and Democratic chairmen. So, an article on the current chairman of the Armed Services Committee taking campaign contributions from defense contractors would seem to be an obvious and redundant read.

However, Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-California) has taken self-dealing to new heights and is having those same contractors contribute to his wife’s campaign for the California legislature. The explanations from his wife’s campaign flack and the contractors would be funny if it weren’t so brazen.

Read it all.

Looks to me that my Congressman Elton Gallegly should have run against Buck McKeon to at least clear the GOP Field and preserve this seat for the GOP.

I am wondering what candidates will come out of the woodwork by the end of filing tomorrow at 5 PM. I suspect there will be a few to challenge the House Armed Services Chairman McKeon who seems to have an extreme ethics problem.

I don’t think his wife’s candidacy for the California Assembly will help him much. I am covering that race at Flap’s California Blog.

Stay tuned…..

Enter Patricia McKeon, Buck’s wife. She has been his campaign treasurer for years and is one of the highest-paid Congressional wives. She is 70 years old and touts her role as a mother of six and a grandmother of 31. She proudly lists her background as head of the PTA and involvement in the Boy Scouts. She now has declared her candidacy for the 38th District of the California Assembly. She said that she was inspired to run after being outraged that Los Angeles plans to tax a 10-cent charge on plastic grocery bags.

Well it turns out that many of our major defense contractors are also outraged over this tax on plastic bags and/or other regulations that might be rattling around the California State Assembly. These major companies have given this first-time candidate around 45 percent of her campaign money so far.