Records reveal Palin's push for earmarks

Records reveal Palin's push for earmarks
Posted on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 6:31 PM ET
Filed Under: Politics

By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer
As a vice presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin has railed against federal earmarks, or congressional funding for pork-barrel projects. "In our state, we reformed the abuses of earmarks," Palin recently boasted to a rally in Lancaster, Pa. "We championed earmark reform up there," she said, "to stop Congress from wasting public money on things that didn't serve the public interest."

But musty records culled from the archives of the Wasilla, Alaska, city government reveal that Palin was directly involved in soliciting millions of dollars in earmarks for Wasilla when she was mayor. And she got help from a well-connected Washington lobbyist.

In a monthly status report to the city on March 7, 2000, newly hired "City Lobbyist" Steve Silver describes how the Palin administration had requested $6.6 million in federal earmarks for water and sewer improvements for Wasilla, and another $1 million for police equipment. Mayor Palin reviewed and signed the lobbyist's report, dated April 5, 2000.

Those earmark requests have not previously been disclosed, said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for the non-profit Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Ashdown said the lobbyist's report offers a rare window into a normally closed-door process. "The document you've found is a peek behind the curtain of how earmarks get approved in Washington," he said....

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Records reveal Palin's push for earmarks

Blog Buzz: Sarah Palin's Pork

Sarah "Porky (Not Piggy)" Palin
US News

After McCain said earlier this year that he won't "spend $3 million of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana," Politico reports that as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin requested millions of dollars to study the DNA of harbor seals, among other things (including research on the mating habits of crabs.) Liberal and other bloggers are both amused and appalled that Palin, who claims she is conservative when it comes to earmarks, would request federal money for a project nearly identical to one that McCain has mocked. TPM's Josh Marshall says that while the research is not necessarily wasteful, the earmark is yet another example of how McCain and Palin are "hypocrites and liars." Marc Ambinder has a memo from McCain that defends Palin on earmarks.

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Sarah "Porky (Not Piggy)" Palin