Washington, DC – Campaign Money Watch, a campaign finance watchdog group, said that the Government Accountability Office’s report finding errors in the awarding of an Air Force contract sheds new light on Sen. John McCain’s intervention in the deal. The GAO ruled today in support of Boeing’s complaint that the Air Force erred in awarding a French firm, Airbus, and its partners a contract worth up to $100 billion to manufacture refueling tankers.

“We now know that the Air Force’s bidding process was flawed when it awarded the contract to Airbus and its partners over Boeing,” said David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch. “What we do not yet know is whether John McCain's well-documented intervention to help Airbus, or the role that lobbyists for Airbus now helping McCain's campaign, will be identified as reasons for the flaws in this process. We look forward to the full release of the GAO report.”

A June 6th Campaign Money Watch analysis described that U.S. employees of Airbus’ parent, European Aeronautic Defense and Space, had donated more money to McCain than any other politician. Two of the seven Airbus lobbyists who went on to help with McCain’s presidential bid – Tom Loeffler and Kirk Blalock – have both raised at least $250,000 for the McCain campaign.

The watchdog group also recently ran a TV ad in the Washington, D.C., market, detailing McCain’s involvement in the Airbus deal. The ad and its supporting documentation are available at http://www.campaignmoney.org/mccainairbus.

Campaign Money Watch is a project of the nonpartisan Public Campaign Action Fund. The organization works to hold candidates who are against reform accountable for where they get their political donations.