It appears that Murray and Dicks helped set-up a company who would become a personal cash cow, just as the father of the CEO has taken care of them for years.
McBees Strategies Consulting were lobbyists for Solyndra.
Lobbyists are Sen. Murray’s biggest donors
July 5, 2010
Top lobbyist donors
On Murray’s list of top-10 contributors are two lobbying firms. Employees at Denny Miller Associates of Washington, D.C., have given $84,200 since 2005. Miller lobbies on behalf of a wide range of clients in Washington state, including Boeing, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and Swedish Medical Center, as well as defense contractors.
The other firm is McBee Strategic Consulting, whose founder, Steve McBee, once worked for U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton. The firm’s president of Northwest operations is Rick Desimone, Murray’s former chief of staff. McBee has given $58,600 since 2005 to Murray’s campaign and to her PAC.
M-PAC is the 16th-largest leadership PAC in the Senate, with $435,000 in contributions between January 2009 and April 2010.
Murray has dipped into M-PAC to support a host of Democratic candidates and groups. Recipients include Reid, the Senate majority leader; Senate Policy Chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan; and the political-action committee of Planned Parenthood.
Murray’s Washington state colleague in the Senate, Maria Cantwell, is one of 13 senators who do not operate a leadership PAC.
McGehee, the campaign-finance expert, believes that leadership PACs represent influence peddling at its worst: Donors give to curry favors with a lawmaker, who for the same reason then funnels the money to fellow politicians.
Murray voted for the landmark 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill, which sought to regulate large contributions from corporations and unions to political organizations. She also is one of 47 co-sponsors of the DISCLOSE Act, a legislative counterattack to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned parts of McCain-Feingold...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012287293_murray06m.html
If Rep. Dicks takes lead on Defense panel, Boeing may benefit
By Roxana Tiron - 02/09/10 09:59 PM ET
...Dicks’s links to K Street come through Denny Miller Associates. The firm has longstanding ties to Washington state, represents a large number of defense contractors and has hired several former Dicks staffers.
Meanwhile, McBee Strategic was started by Steve McBee, a former policy aide for Dicks. McBee Strategic has expanded far beyond defense. Defense clients are only a small portion of the firm’s roster.
Dicks was among other members of the House Appropriations Defense panel who were investigated last year by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) for directing earmarks to defense companies that had hired the now-defunct lobby shop PMA Group, whose founder is under federal investigation for fraudulent campaign contributions. The OCE closed its investigation into Dicks, finding no cause to continue...
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/80479-if-rep-dicks-takes-top-position-on-defense-panel-boeing-may-benefit
The owner of the Denny Miller [McBee] Associates lobbyist group is the father of [Steve] McBees Strategies. Steve McBee worked as a senior policy aide to Congressman Norm Dicks for four years. The General Counsel at McBees worked for Patty Murray along with other ex-Aides. McBees was a lobbyist for Solyndra. Is that legal? Or “just” crony capitalism?