Reelection pivot

McCain's reelection pivot: Bringing home the bucks

With his political future on the line, McCain is making his ability to steer defense business to Arizona a key tenet of his reelection bid.

By Jeremy Herb and Connor O’Brien

John McCain has spent his career condemning political cronyism and patronage, including big-dollar defense programs such as the $300 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which he's denounced as “a scandal and a tragedy.”

But with his political future and chairmanship of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee at stake in his toughest reelection bid in decades, McCain is singing a different tune — including boasting that he has gotten the Defense Department to base the F-35 in his state.

The Arizona Republican is also touting his work to prevent the Air Force from retiring the A-10 Warthog, an attack plane based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson that the military calls too old and expensive to maintain. And he's playing up his efforts to boost weapons production, including nearly doubling the number of Tomahawk missiles manufactured by Raytheon in the state.

“I kinda think you could make an argument that I'm doing my job," McCain said during a debate this month, the only one with his challenger, Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.

Bragging about bringing money and jobs home from Washington sounds like a smart campaign tactic for an incumbent whose reelection bid has been complicated by his endorsement and subsequent dismissal of Donald Trump. But it also puts McCain in the position of highlighting some of the same types of parochial defense spending that he has condemned throughout much of his career — contradicting the good-government mantra he has built much of his 33-year congressional career around.

McCain has been a vocal critic of influential lawmakers — in particular Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and his state's congressional delegation — for adding money for Navy ships not in the Pentagon’s budget and for protecting contractor United Launch Alliance, which builds rockets in Alabama.

“Two hundred twenty-five million dollars for a ship, it's called a Joint High Speed Vessel, for a ship that the Navy did not want,” McCain said on the Senate floor this past spring as part of a lengthy critique of a spending bill. “What was put in there and why, because frankly — and I use these words without reservation — it's made in Mobile, Ala. It's blatant.”

McCain spokeswoman Rachael Dean said in a statement that McCain advocates for Arizona defense priorities that “contribute greatly to America’s national security,” and not projects the Pentagon isn’t requesting.

“Sen. McCain has long been critical of pork-barrel spending airdropped into defense bills that either has nothing to do with defense or does not meet a legitimate military need,” she said. “At the same time, Sen. McCain has been a fierce advocate for Arizona’s military installations that contribute greatly to America’s national security, and all of which meet actual defense needs.”

But for McCain, that included keeping the A-10 flying — over the Pentagon’s objections. In back-to-back budget requests, the Air Force proposed scrapping the popular but aging plane. McCain and other lawmakers fired back, arguing no existing platform would be a suitable replacement.

Congress successfully reversed the decision, and the Pentagon finally relented: DoD agreed to delay retiring the A-10 and has opted to use the plane in combat against the Islamic State.

During the debate against Kirkpatrick, McCain touted his work to save the plane, noting that "the A-10 is now at Davis-Monthan."

He also highlighted the fact that the newest fighter jet will be based at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, and is also operating at the Marine Corps air station in Yuma.

"The F-35 is now at MCAS Yuma and at Luke Air Force Base,” he bragged at the debate. “Every foreign student that flies the F-35 will be trained at Luke Air Force Base."

In the past, however, he has done anything but brag about the costliest weapon systems in the Pentagon's history, which is far behind schedule and way over budget.

“It has been an incredible waste of the taxpayer's dollar, and it hurts the credibility of our acquisition process, our defense industry,” McCain said of the F-35 at a 2011 hearing. “It reinforces the view of some of us that the military industrial congressional complex that President Eisenhower warned us about is alive and well.”

Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the American Enterprise Institute who was a Senate aide while McCain was ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said his advocacy to bring the F-35 to Arizona makes sense now that it’s clear the plane isn’t going to be canceled.

“Once the thing is built, it’s every man for himself,” she said. “When there are tails on the ramp, why not make it your ramp? It’s rational self interest. I know it comes across a little two-faced, but you can be opposed to development and production of a program, and once that thing comes out of a factory he should fight for it.”

McCain is also playing up his work on the annual National Defense Authorization Act to boost weapons production in Arizona, including nearly doubling the number of Raytheon-made Tomahawks. He touted that this year’s defense bill calls for Raytheon to build an extra 96 Tomahawk missiles at its Tucson facility, along with 439 Sidewinder missiles and 125 of the Navy’s SM-6 missiles.

The Senate defense policy bill includes an additional $84 million to boost production of Tomahawk missiles to 196, up from the 100 requested by the Pentagon. The committee said it made the move, which the House also followed, to keep production at the minimum sustaining rate and push back against the Navy’s plans to end production of new Tomahawks in 2018.

To be sure, McCain’s work to help Arizona military bases and his state’s defense industry is part of a long tradition, especially among committee chairmen.

For instance, McCain’s predecessor as chairman, Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, also trumpeted bringing home defense projects. Levin, who retired in 2015, touted funding for a slew of programs that employ Michigan workers and contractors, including the Littoral Combat Ship and the Army’s Abrams Main Battle Tank and Stryker combat vehicle. And he was instrumental in preventing the Air Force from retiring the A-10, which has a squadron based at Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

In 2014, Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) made protecting the Gulf Coast’s defense industrial base a key component of his narrow primary run-off victory against tea party challenger Chris McDaniel.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, being chairman of the committee is a very, very powerful position both to do good for country and to do good for state,” said Arnold Punaro, a defense industry consultant and former Senate Armed Services staff director. “And there’s nothing wrong with that — that’s what they’re supposed to do. That’s what they’re elected to do.”

A spokesman for Kirkpatrick's campaign told POLITICO the three-term congresswoman also plans to fight to preserve the state's military installations and role in hosting the A-10 and F-35.

"She has always worked to ensure our bases and troops have the resources they need to thrive today and in the future, particularly at Fort Huachuca which will play a crucial role as a center for cyber defense in the war on terror," said D.B. Mitchell. "She is eager to continue that work in the U.S. Senate."

But McCain has not been one to go out of his way to gloat about his role in steering defense dollars that assist his home state — especially if they involve programs he has otherwise criticized.

In addition to the other local projects, McCain has also pushed for a provision in the defense policy bill preventing the Air Force from retiring the EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare planes stationed, in part, at Davis-Monthan.

He has also highlighted how the bill is fully funding the Army’s request of $1.1 billion for 52 Apache helicopters to be upgraded at Boeing’s Mesa, Ariz., facility.

“I have contributed — and it's not an accident — that I am reviewed as one of the foremost leaders in Congress not only on national security, but for the good of the state of Arizona,” McCain said during the debate.

“So I’m proud of my record,” he said.

Yet, McCain insists to his constituents that he is still living up to his reputation as above most of the parochial interests that he has so long accused his colleagues of being guided by.

“I will continue to be known as The Maverick,” he promised.