EVERETT, Wash. - For years now, Boeing has kept its 767 production line alive, betting that one day it will win a big defense contract to build hundreds of new air refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. And for years, Washington Democrat Norm Dicks has pulled for Boeing.
It's been a long road. In fact, this is the third time the Air Force has tried to make the decision. The first round was thwarted by a scandal within Boeing's upper management ranks. The second round ended up with Northrop Gruman and the parent company of Airbus winning the competition a few years ago, only to be overturned after the Government Accountability Office found flaws in the Pentagon's procurement process. Northrop has proposed assembling its tankers in Alabama.
But yesterday's unexpected death of Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha threatens to change the equation again. Representative Murtha was Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and his deputy is Washington Democrat Norm Dicks who has fought on Boeing's behalf for years. Murtha died from complications following gallbladder surgery.
Richard Abulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group in Washington, D.C. says the death of Congressman Murtha is a "tipping point," in favor of Boeing.
"He wants it to be Boeing and nothing but Boeing," said Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst with Leeham & Company in Issaquah. "Even in this position as chairman of the committee where he at least has to present a semblance of fairness, his position is well known."
But Norm Dicks doesn't have the job yet.
"I am the next in line, but there is a process that we go through," he told our Washington Bureau.
The process includes three steps, and while the Congressman's office says there's no specific time line, a decision could come soon.
Dicks is promising fairness, which he says is something Boeing was not afforded in the last round overturned by the GAO.
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