The Dayton (Drone) Development Coalition

Recently, the Free Press ran a story about Jim Leftwich, covering his double-dipping into the public trough, lobbying the Federal Aviation Agency to designate the Dayton-Springfield area as a special testing site for military drones, while simultaneously charging Wright State University a consulting fee. While reporting on his $114,000 per year from the State of Ohio, and $20,000 per month from Wright State and the resultant ethics flap, we did not roll the clock back far enough.

Leftwich has vast connections in the Dayton Aerospace world, built in part by the job he had prior to his getting in on the ground floor of the Kasich administration. Leftwich was previously the CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, a non-profit job that netted him $257,000 in 2009.

Far from being a civic booster non-profit that works to attract business to the Dayton area, the DDC is a military funded nonprofit powerhouse. It is the sole authorized group to disburse funds granted by the congressional Base Relocation and Closures Commission or BRAC.

The idea behind BRAC was to use tax dollars to stimulate business in an area where a military base had closed to help the economy transition. What is has become is one of the ultimate windfalls of crony capitalism.

BRAC distributes funds to the DDC because certain Air Force jobs were moved from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in the early 2000s. Due to the closure of a base in San Antonio and the movement of units to central Ohio in 2005, Wright-Patterson AFB actually gained jobs, but since some jobs were taken, it is still eligible for BRAC funds. Leftwich was in charge of these funds until being named by Kasich to lobby the FAA. He lobbied to attract the very same category of businesses he formally paid off to move or remain in Ohio while he was at the DDC.

The Dayton Development Coalition is made up of both private businesses and Dayton area municipalities, and has been key to the further militarization of Ohio. It includes representation from Booz Allen Hamilton, the contractor for the National Security Agency's (NSA) Total Information Awareness project. It also has representation from Wright-Dunbar Inc., a development nonprofit that has alleged war criminal Larry James on its board.

DDC has spearheaded many development projects in the Dayton area, including the expansion of Antioch University into a new facility outside of its traditional campus in Yellow Springs. This new facility, now called Antioch University Midwest, played a significant role in the closure of Antioch College, one of the country’s most well-known progressive colleges. Curiously, while treasurer of the board of trustees of Antioch University, Bruce Bedford was also a board member of the DDC. Not one to wear only two hats, he was also on the board of a private equity and intelligence firm called GlobeSecNine, along with Iran-Contra alumni Brent Scowcroft.

Is Leftwich's sweetheart deals, where he attracts businesses to the area while his consulting firm becomes part owner of the technologies developed by those businesses at public universities with public funds just another example of military crony capitalism at its finest (or worst). Or is there a deeper totalitarian agenda at play? The Free Press continues to investigate.