Price of power: McCain action helped Arizona land developer

[LiberalFighter]

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain secured millions in federal funds for a land acquisition program that provided a windfall for an Arizona developer whose executives were major campaign donors, public records show.

McCain, who has made fighting special-interest projects a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, inserted $14.3 million in a 2003 defense bill to buy land around Luke Air Force Base in a provision sought by SunCor Development, the largest of about 50 landowners near the base. SunCor representatives, upset with a state law that restricted development around Luke, met with McCain's staff to lobby for funding, according to John Ogden, SunCor's president at the time.

The Air Force later paid SunCor $3 million for 122 acres near the base. It was the highest single land transaction of the private lots purchased by the government — three times the county's assessed value and twice the military's estimated value. SunCor also donated another 122 acres. Alan Bunnell, a spokesman for SunCor's parent company, Pinnacle West Capital, said the donation was meant to minimize the company's tax bill and enhance the value of adjacent property it owns.

Source: USA Today 5/19/2008

I tried to see if we had a opposition research section for McCain but didn't find a better location for this.

[democrattotheend]

1. We need a GE forum for McCain research

As well as positive posts for both candidates to prepare for the GE. Keep this forum for all of the fighting.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Is there any other earmark funding that McCain pushed thru especially in Arizona?

[mac2]

3. The Republicans get away with it...

Hastert in IL Illinois land deal, etc. Clinton's Whitewater lost money but they investigated it for years.

Obama has has own land deal too. Not as big as Hastert but political cronyism non-the-less.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2006/03/refco_fraud_may.html Refko trail has been pushed up and Obama left out (so far). Will they pull it out just prior to the election? Little has been said recently.

White collar crime a lot more costly to society than most. Yet few go to jail and they know it.