The Washington Times reports that some of the nation’s top defense contractors helped sponsor an annual congressional charity tennis tournament in Washington, D.C. that was a pet project of Representative Norm Dicks, a senior Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee.
Dicks, who is from the state of Washington, says that he adhered to all ethical rules.
The newspaper reported that defense giant Northrop Grumman spent $25,000 as one of two top sponsors of the 2010 tournament, and that General Dynamics, another huge defense contractor, has been donating since 2006. Other sponsors were Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and the PMA Group, a now defunct lobbying group whose owner was recently sentenced to 27 months in prison on a guilty plea of making illegal campaign contributions.
Mr. Dicks, who reportedly once described himself as the “third best tennis player in Congress,” was said to have helped push for a 7,500-seat tennis stadium in the late 1980s in Rock Creek Park for the men’s ATP tournament there.
The non-profit Congressional Charity Tennis Classic received $49,250 from 2005 through 2008 from the PMA Group. It raised between $150,000 and $200,000 annually from sponsors, and then wrote checks to two charities (one of them being Washington Tennis & Education Foundation, which runs an academic and tennis program for underprivileged children) for a combined $80,000.
The tournament’s attorney said it’s shutting down the corporation because of lack of interest.—Matthew Cronin