Give politicians the power to decide who gets a government contract, and people will naturally want to get on their good side. After all, the power to hand out something valuable is itself something valuable.
Consider the recent ProPublica investigation involving Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Martin Kao, the former head of a Hawaii defense contractor called Navatek, told the FBI that his donations to the Republican senator’s campaign and an allied super PAC were part of a deal for help winning federal funding and contracts for his company.
