Cunningham staying mum on home deal

By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Monday, June 20, 2005 9:39 PM PDT ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham still has no timetable for releasing information about his relationship with a Washington contractor who purchased the congressman's Del Mar home in 2003 and shortly thereafter saw his company's defense contracts soar.

Cunningham spokesman Mark Olson said Monday that his boss has no schedule for release of records or other information about the lawmaker's dealings with Mitchell J. Wade, president of MZM Inc.

The U.S. Attorney's office has reportedly launched a probe of that relationship, although a spokeswoman for that office in San Diego refused Monday to confirm an investigation was under way.

Regardless of any official probe, the chairman of the San Diego County Republican party said Monday that he believed that Cunningham, R-Escondido, needs to publicly address the questions that have dogging the 64-year-old former Navy pilot for more than a week and he needs to do so soon.

"I think everyone is looking forward to the situation being clarified," county GOP Chairman Ron Nehring said. "There clearly is more information that needs to come out and when that happens we will get a clearer idea of what happens next."

"The congressman is putting together all the relevant records and information and will disclose it at the appropriate time," Olson said.

Cunningham has been under fire since a June 12 disclosure that Wade had purchased the congressman's Del Mar home in December 2003 for $1.675 million and sold it less than a year later in October 2004 for $700,000 less than the purchase price.

Around the same time, MZM reported that the value of its defense contracts had soared, its revenues had tripled and its number of employees had grown substantially.

Wade and MZM officials have repeatedly rebuffed efforts to talk with them about the company's relationship with Cunningham, who was first elected to Congress in 1990. Cunningham serves on the House Appropriations Committee and its Defense Subcommittee, as well as the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Repeated telephone calls to Wade at his home and at the firm's Washington offices last week, over the weekend and on Monday have gone unreturned.

MZM's Defense Department contracts, many of which appear classified, grew to more than $65 million in fiscal year 2004, which ended Sept. 30, and involve U.S. efforts in Iraq and in homeland security. The firm's Web site indicates much of its work surrounds intelligence gathering, technology and information systems.

Fueling the questions over Cunningham's relationship with the firm and with Wade was a North County Times story last week that showed that Cunningham stays on a 42-foot boat owned by Wade named the "Duke-Stir." The boat is moored in a slip leased by Cunningham at a Potomac River marina in Washington.

In a statement issued by his office last week, Cunningham wrote that he would produce records showing that living arrangement was not improper. He has not said or written anything about the matter since.

Shortly after Wade paid the lawmaker the $1.675 million to buy the house, real estate records show that Cunningham paid $2.55 million in cash for a five-bedroom home at 7094 Via Del Charro in the upscale Rancho Santa Fe area of North County.

Published and televised reports last week said that the U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego had opened an investigation over that transaction using the FBI and its resources and that subpoenas were being issued.

Debra Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego, said Monday that she could neither confirm nor deny an investigation into Cunningham's dealing with Wade and his company and could only do so "if and when any indictment has been filed."

Olson said Monday that no subpoenas had been issued to Cunningham or any of his staffers regarding the congressman's dealings with Wade and MZM. But a House clerk announced at the beginning of Monday's legislative session that Cunningham had been served with a subpoena out of Imperial County Superior Court.

That subpoena is related to constituent casework in Cunningham's 50th Congressional District. The Associated Press reported it stemmed from a civil suit filed against Imperial County by a man who alleges he was beaten by a Bureau of Land Management ranger in the Imperial Sand Dunes.

Cunningham and the father of the man who brought that suit served together in the Navy and the attorney is seeking written correspondence between the plaintiff and the lawmaker. An attorney representing Imperial County said Cunningham had complied with the subpoena.

Dueling views

The GOP's Nehring said that he was "disappointed that some Democrats and political hacks were choosing to make a political game" out of the Cunningham's troubles.

"The chances of the Democrats winning that district are somewhat lower than the odds of hell freezing over," Nehring said, adding that with more than a year to go before the 2006 congressional elections, he was certain that Cunningham could emerge from the controversy and win a ninth term.

Nowhere near as certain was Jess Durfee, chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party. Durfee said California U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, was able to win a majority in the 50th District during her last Senate campaign.

"It's not as much of a Republican District as Ron Nehring might like to think and his dream of 'hell freezing over' might be coming true," Durfee said Monday.

Durfee also said the questions being leveled at Cunningham require that he open up all his financial records.

"He needs to be totally open about this," Durfee said. "And just how does a retired Navy commander and member of Congress afford a $2.5 million home? How does that happen?"

Members of Congress are paid $158,100 a year.

The San Diego County Assessors Office said Monday that the Rancho Santa Fe home where Cunningham now lives was assessed in March 2004 at an appraised value of $2.6 million. The home sits on a nearly 3-acre tract.

Durfee said that in addition to the real estate deal, Cunningham's relationship with Wade smacks of insider influence.

"The whole thing stinks," Durfee said. "The fact that he is so tight with a defense contractor whose issues go before the committees he serves on is what we call corruption."

Starting in 2001 and through 2004, Cunningham's campaign committee, Friends of Duke Cunningham in La Mesa, has received at least $13,000 from Wade and his political action committee, MZM Inc. PAC.

In 2003, that PAC also has contributed $1,000 to U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, a panel that wields almost as much clout as the House Appropriations Committee. Hunter's 52nd Congressional District is immediately adjacent to Cunningham's.

Kenneth Batton has served as treasurer of that Friends of Duke Cunningham campaign committee for the last 14 years. Batton said he has not spoken to the lawmaker since the stories broke about the lucrative real estate deal and Cunningham's ties to Wade's boat.

"I hope everything proves that no laws were broken," Batton, a certified public accountant said Monday. "I think his heart has always been in the right place and I hope he hasn't done something that inadvertently broke the law."

Francine Busby, who lost to Cunningham in the 2004 congressional elections and is running for the Democratic nomination to face Cunningham in next year's election, said Monday that her campaign has been energized.

"It has put our campaign into a high gear a year sooner that we thought it would be," the 54-year-old former Cardiff school board member said. "This is giving the people of this district the opportunity for a competitive race for the first time in 15 years."

Busby got about 37 percent of the vote in 2004 and has opened up a campaign office in Encinitas for her second run for the 50th District seat. She said the need for formal investigation into Cunningham's dealings with Wade and his company is clear.

"These are very serious charges," she said.

In Washington, U.S. Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark paid $500 on Monday paid for an ad scheduled to appear on two Washington media Web sites. The ad reads, "House for Sale by influential member of Congress. Wanted: Lobbyists willing to buy at prices well above actual value."

Stark told the Associated Press the ad was an attempt to pressure Republicans into progress with the House Ethics Committee, which is locked in a dispute over staffing and is not operating.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.