In 2004, Congresswoman Katherine Harris (FL-13) received $50,000 in campaign contributions through MZM, Inc., the defense contracting firm owned by confessed Duke Cunningham briber and co-conspirator Mitch Wade. Only Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode received more from the company.

The revelations surrounding the contributions and the steps Harris took to help MZM get federal funds have generated considerable controversy. Harris has cancelled campaign appearances in the last week, and has announced her appearance tonight (Wednesday, March 15) on the Hannity and Colmes show on Fox News to address speculation that she will withdraw from the Senate race.

Illegal Campaign Contributions
$32,000 of the MZM contributions to Harris were illegal "straw donations" - contributions from Wade which he funneled through his employees and their spouses to evade federal campaign laws. See Wade's guilty plea for details ... (Harris is "Representative B".)

Harris has professed ignorance that the contributions from MZM were illegal, but a few facts undermine her claim.
1) Wade personally handed Harris the bundle of checks from his employees.
2) MZM employees gave four times the campaign contributions as her next largest contributor in 2003-4.
3) Harris had received straw donations ten years earlier during her campaign for Florida state senate. In that case, the executives of Riscorp Insurance were convicted for funneling nearly $400,000 in illegal contributions to candidates in Florida. The $20,000 Harris received through the company was second only to the state Insurance Commissioner. An internal Riscorp document introduced at the trial stated that Harris's campaign managed had asked the company to use separate addresses on the checks to the Harris campaign so that they could not be traced to one source. In response to the scandal, Harris introduced a bill to combat the illegal use of corporate straw donations.

So, her largest contributor hands Harris a bundle of $2,000 campaign checks from his employees ten years after an insurance company used the exact same scheme and not a single red flag is raised for Harris?

Bribery?
In early 2005, just weeks after the election for which Wade was Harris's largest contributor, Wade and Harris had dinner together in Washington D.C. At the dinner, Wade asked Harris for help funding a new MZM facility (see picture at left) and counterintelligence program in Florida, sweetening his request with an offer to hold a fundraiser for Harris's Senate campaign.

A couple months later, Harris amended her funding request to leadership to include $10 million for MZM, making it her third highest priority. The funds were never rewarded, however.

MZM was sold to Veritas Capital investors in June when the Cunningham scandal broke, and quickly renamed Athena Innovative Solutions. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Veritas has on its advisory council: Richard Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state in the Bush administration; Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who headed the Clinton administration's war on drugs; and Gen. Anthony Zinni, who headed U.S. military operations in the Middle East in the Clinton administration.

Harris says she contributed an equal amount of $50,000 to charity