Pork-Pillow Politics

Copyright © 2004 by Seattle Weekly

When Sen. Patty Murray invited Sen. Hillary Clinton for a fund-raiser and briefing on homeland security in June, they held their press conference at Terminal 18 on Harbor Island, the massive container operation run by SSA Terminals, a division of SSA Marine. Despite its low local profile, Seattle-based SSA, formerly known as Stevedoring Services of America, is the biggest privately held container-terminal operator and cargo handling company in the world, with 10,000 employees, 150 locations, and $1 billion in annual revenue. Four days into the war in Iraq, SSA was awarded a controversial no-bid contract by the Bush administration to oversee the flow of humanitarian aid and war supplies into the war-damaged deep-water port of Umm Qsar. More recently, SSA was involved in another no-bid Iraq deal that has, reportedly, prompted an FBI investigation of a Defense Department official's relationship with an SSA lobbyist.

Since 1992, Murray has received $4,000 in campaign contributions from SSA President and Chief Executive Jon F. Hemingway, and she got another $1,000 a month ago from SSA's political action committee. Meanwhile, Murray procured taxpayer dollars for port security last year, $1.7 million of which went to SSA. Not an unusual give and take involving a member of Congress, certainly, and the senator, through her spokesperson, says she never lobbied on SSA's behalf directly. But Murray's connection to SSA is longstanding and deep. Her husband, Rob Murray, works for SSA, and Murray cites his SSA retirement investment fund, valued at up to $500,000, as her major personal financial asset in federal disclosure documents. This connection is not widely known, though it's no secret.

Known or not, the 53-year-old senator's stake in the private company appears to pose a possible conflict of interest under Senate Rule 37, which addresses "the possibility or the appearance that members or staff are 'cashing in' on their official positions (i.e., using their positions for personal gain) or that they have personal financial stakes in the outcome of their official duties." Murray is a respected Senate leader. But it appears that any political or legislative work she does to the benefit of SSA could also, albeit indirectly, benefit Murray's personal finances. Private contributions from SSA and its lobbyists flow to an employee's wife, who, on Capitol Hill, does her best to direct public money to the corporation in which she has a vested interest.

Murray sees nothing improper about her SSA coziness. "Not at all," says press secretary Mike Spahn. Her Senate port-security leadership role, he says, naturally brings her into contact with marine giant SSA. "She is working hard to ensure that the citizens of Seattle and the Puget Sound region ... the entire country, are safe. She has been fighting tooth and nail for several years to make sure we have that security and funding." Spahn says Murray never directly sought funding for SSA, or any Washington state business or agency, for that matter—that the amount and recipients were the choosing of the Transportation Security Administration. (Murray issued a press release at the time, however, outlining the funding for SSA and other Washington businesses and ports, saying, "I helped secure these critical dollars ...") Because Murray didn't directly secure funding for SSA, Spahn says, Rule 37 doesn't apply. "You're creating some kind of malfeasance here that isn't the case," Spahn says.

SSA agrees. "We do not see any conflict in supporting Sen. Murray," says company spokesperson Bob Watters. "In representing our state, Sen. Murray has taken a strong interest and leadership position on Port security and in supporting the men and women of the Coast Guard, as this is important to our state and the nation. We have supported congressman [Norm] Dicks for similar reasons." SSA has never been "singled out" for appropriations by Murray, Watters argues. It merely shares in federal funding. SSA says its relationship with Murray pre-dates her becoming a U.S. senator in 1992. "Jon supported Patty in her school board activities and in state government," says Watters. "The basis for Jon's personal support of Patty is his relationship with the Murray family, through Rob's longtime service—now 25-plus years—at SSA Marine and Jon's firsthand knowledge of Patty's character, intelligence, and integrity."

Although Rob Murray's job at SSA, as a computer specialist, is listed on the senator's annual financial disclosure report, it's a connection rarely mentioned in the media. Press secretary Spahn says the marital connection "never came up before."

But circumstances have changed in recent years. Husband Rob worked for SSA prior to his wife's Senate election, then quit in 1993 and moved to D.C. with their two then-teenage children. Homesick, Rob and the kids moved back to Seattle two years later, and he rejoined SSA. His wife has since risen to power in the Senate. The onetime "mom in tennis shoes," as she humbly billed herself in the early days of her political career, is now a leading Democratic Party force and fund-raiser who was easily re-elected in 1998. Washington state's first female senator, Murray is the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Transportation Committee and a trailblazer on issues of post–9/11 port security.

In her latest financial disclosure report, released in June, Murray was not required to list her husband's salary or her $154,700 Senate salary, but she declares assets of up to $795,000—up from $660,000 the previous year. Disclosure rules allow senators to ballpark their finances between low and high ranges. The SSA Strategy Fund retirement account, for example, is listed as being worth somewhere between $250,001 and $500,000, and Murray's total assets fall between $358,000 to $795,000.