By: Politico

When a guerilla advertising blitz stung defense giant Boeing last week over the $35 billion Air Force aerial tanker contract, staffers in Boeing’s Washington headquarters scrambled to figure out who was firing at them.

Not your usual Washington crowd, as it turns out, but four men from Mobile, Ala.: a firefighter, an accountant, a real estate agent and a lawyer-lobbyist.

And the way they see it, Boeing started the fight — and the Alabama foursome may not be finished responding.

The ads, which ran on two Washington radio stations, were placed by “Alabamians to Build America’s Tanker.” Their aim: to diminish Boeing’s chances of winning the contract, which the Air Force is rebidding, at the expense of Northrop Grumman and its partner, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. Northrop and EADS plan to build the tankers in Mobile.

Two of the three ads cited recent corruption scandals at Boeing in a campaign-style attack that seriously irritated Boeing’s union leaders.

The group behind the ad feels irritated, too. Among Boeing’s arguments to win the contract is a claim that the Northrop-EADS tanker would be a European plane, dismissing the contributions of the would-be Alabama workers.

“When was the last time you saw a company accuse an entire state of a conspiracy to send jobs overseas?” asked Jonathan Gray, a Mobile-based public relations agent working for the group. “Boeing has slapped us in the face. We’re ready to slap them back.”

So four men who often chat casually at the city’s annual Mardi Gras bash and other community events decided they’d had enough. Over a conference call, they planned a counterattack.

They registered as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and began soliciting funds. The group’s president, Bryan Lee — a firefighter in Mobile who has pressed City Hall for pension benefits — refused to disclose who ponied up the thousands of dollars for the ads that ran last Tuesday on radio stations WTOP and WMAL.

Other sorts of advocacy groups frequently buy ads, “but it is unusual for a 501(c)3 to do it since they are limited to insubstantial lobbying,” said Stephen Weissman, associate director of policy for the Campaign Finance Institute. For instance, they can’t urge listeners to call Congress and demand a vote, one way or the other.

Loren B. Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute, a defense industry think tank, said it’s also unusual for “a small, local nonprofit to start weighing in in Washington on big contract decisions.”

“I think it will make some people wonder if they’re getting funding from folks with an interest in the outcome of the competition,” Thompson added.

Although the group cites civic pride as its motivation, its members do have connections to the tanker program.

Palmer C. Hamilton of Miller, Hamilton, Snider and Odom lobbies for the city of Mobile, which is pressing Northrop’s case in hopes of landing the jobs that will come with the tanker project.

Several months ago, Hamilton was walking the Capitol hallways with Samuel L. Jones, the mayor of Mobile, to talk with lawmakers about the importance of the tanker contract to the city.

In an interview, Hamilton said his association with the Alabamians’ group was as a private citizen — not as a lobbyist.

He’s also a big congressional campaign donor, supporting primarily Republicans. This year, he gave $500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and to Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Brad Miller (D-N.C.), according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Paul Wesch is the real estate agent in the group. He is executive vice president of The Mitchell Co. He and his wife, Linda, have also donated to political campaigns, supporting Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) in 2006 as well as the state’s two Republican senators, Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, according to the center.

The accountant, Michael Thompson, works for Russell Thompson Butler and Houston. He is not a campaign donor.

Lee, the firefighter, said he doesn’t want the group’s defense of Alabama to cause consternation among people in Seattle, where Boeing plans to build its tankers.

But Connie Kelliher, the spokeswoman for the Boeing union near Seattle, poked back at the Alabamians. Unlike Boeing’s longtime assembly base in Washington state, the Northrop team broke ground just last month for a factory that will do only modification work on the tanker.

“What’s their record on refueling tankers? What? They don’t have one,” Kelliher said. “That’s our response. If the competition was fair, Boeing would win hands down.”

The Alabamians pulled the ads on Thursday after realizing that Congress was heading out of town on summer recess.

But the foursome was thrilled at the response to its first strike. The Alabama congressional delegation is “pumped up and excited,” Gray said, and the competition clearly rattled.

With the money they saved by cutting last week’s buy, they could gain some extra visibility in September, Gray said. They’ve already received calls from numerous other radio, television and print outlets (this one included) soliciting advertising.

But it’s unlikely they’ll have the airwaves to themselves now that Boeing’s team is on alert and the dispute could escalate into a full-scale Alabama vs. Washington feud.

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) is already demanding an apology.

“I believe that the group responsible for this ad should apologize to every Boeing worker, and I urge my colleagues in the Washington state, Kansas and Alabama delegations to join me in calling for these ads to be taken down so that the bidding process can carry on in a fair, responsible and respectful manner,” he said.

“These ads are beneath the dignity of the country these tankers will ultimately serve.”

The Alabamians have remained mum about their specific plans. After pulling the ads, they posted only a few words Friday on their website, www.bettertanker.org:

“First Mission Accomplished; Stay Tuned.”

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