Robert Aiken is vice president of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, an Arizona-based energy company that provides most of the state's electricity through its subsidiary Arizona Public Service. Company executives have long been close to the Republican Party. CEO Bill Post, for instance, has been friends with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) since 1987[1]; Aiken advised George H.W. Bush on energy issues during his 1992 campaign[2] and he raised $60,000 for Sen. George Allen's (R-VA) 2000 election campaign.[3] The company has also donated $15,000 to the International Republican Institute (IRI), which McCain currently chairs, over the past two years.[4] Pinnacle has lobbied Congress hard over the years in favor of nuclear power - something John McCain supports - and against further industry regulation, including energy taxes. [5] A Pinnacle subsidiary, SunCor Development, also benefited from a provision McCain inserted in a 2003 defense bill that secured $14.3 million for a land acquisition program, which allowed the Air Force to purchase from SunCor 122 acres near Luke Air Force Base, paying three times the county's assessed value and twice the military's estimated value.[6]
In 1998, Mother Jones magazine reported that it had obtained a "confidential strategy memo" that suggested Pinnacle West helped Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) draft legislation that would bar public utilities from selling tax-exempt bonds and force them to buy back all their outstanding bonds before they could compete with private energy firms such as Pinnacle.[7] According to Mother Jones, Murkowski received $43,000 in contributions from 21 private utilities in the first half of 1997, "the most from any single industry and 25% of his total receipts."[8]
For a complete look at Robert Aiken and Pinnacle West Capital's lobbying activities, please visit the non-partisan Center For Responsive Politics' money-in-politics database.
[1] Bill Post, "Man of the Year Sees Leadership in all Success," The Arizona Republic, April 13, 2007.
[2] Bill Loveless, "Energy Trade Association Officials Volunteer to Advise Bush Campaign," Inside Energy/with Federal Lands, September 14, 1992.
[3] Spencer S. Hsu, "Senate GOP Names Allen To Lead Fundraising," The Washington Post, November 14, 2002.
[4] "International Republican Institute Corporate Donors At-a-Glance," The Associated Press, October 19, 2007.
[5] Brian Jordan and Dave Airozo, "Congress Said Unlikely to Support Licensing Reform Beyond NRC Rule," Nucleonics Week, May 8, 1989.
[6] Matt Kelley, "Price Of Power: McCain Action Helped Arizona Land Developer," USA Today, May 15, 2008.
[7] Ken Silverstein, Mother Jones, March/April 1998.
[8] Ibid.