Letter to the editor: No politicking here

I was surprised when reading the article "The money trail: Contractors lean to the right" [Oct. 11] to find Mitre Corp. on a list of companies tracked by dollars contributed to political campaigns. Although you said these contributions include those made by "company employees and spouses," your story leaves the distinct impression that these monies are going to campaigns from companies on your Top 100 list of federal prime contractors. At Mitre, nothing could be further from the truth.

We are a not-for-profit corporation chartered to work in the public interest. We operate federally funded research and development centers for our government sponsors and are prohibited from contributing to, affiliating with or promoting any political party, cause or campaign.

Our employees are free to contribute to whomever they choose, and it is their individual contributions that make up the figures that you have attributed to our company.

Such distortion strikes at the heart of our corporation's objectivity. Please make every effort in the future to ensure your readers are not given the inaccurate impression that Mitre as a corporation is supporting, affiliated with or connected in any way with political activity of any sort -- our company has never done so, is not doing so now and never will.  

Catherine Howland, Director, Corporate Communications and Knowledge Services

Mitre Corp.