BAE, Boeing, Raytheon Lose Congressional Champions; EMP Loses A Friend

[unhappycamper]

http://defense.aol.com/2012/11/07/bae-boeing-raytheon-lose-hasc-champions-emp-loses-a-friend/




BAE, Boeing, Raytheon Lose Congressional Champions; EMP Loses A Friend
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: November 7, 2012

WASHINGTON: The overall balance of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees will shift little in the 113th Congress, but individual causes and companies have lost important advocates as individual legislators went down to defeat.

This may have been a banner year for incumbents-- as most years are -- but the House Armed Services Committee still took a hit. Depending on the final tallies, as many as eight HASC members -- five Democrats and three Republicans, including prominent Tea Party favorite Allen West -- may have lost their seats yesterday.

An Army veteran of Afghanistan and both wars in Iraq, West was well-regarded among Republicans, but his fiery and often inflammatory rhetoric alienated many voters in his redrawn district. While the race has not been formally called, political novice Patrick Murphy has squeaked ahead of West with 50.4 percent of the vote to 49.6 -- a margin just big enough to avoid an automatic recount. West has called for a recount anyway, accusing Democrats of "disturbing irregularities."

On the Senate side, once up-and-coming Republican Todd Akin lost badly to Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill, taking just 39 percent of the vote to her 55 percent. Akin, former chairman of the HASC seapower subcommittee and a sometime AOL Defense contributor, had been heavily favored until his remarks about "legitimate rape" dealt his campaign a blow from which it never recovered. That deprives Boeing and its St. Louis aircraft factory of one of their biggest advocates in Congress. McCaskill will almost certainly keep her spot as chair of the readiness panel of Senate Armed Services Committee, where she has pushed hard on "good government" issues.



unhappycamper comment: Alan's calling for a recount. It's probably all those nefarious things those notorious libruls do - LIKE VOTE you asshole.