Palin's pork requests belie reformer image

ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain touts Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a force in the his battle against earmarks and entrenched power brokers, but under her leadership the state this year asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from one of McCain's top adversaries: indicted Sen. Ted Stevens.

That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress for the current budget year, and runs counter to the reformer image that Palin and the McCain campaign are pushing. Other states got just $34 worth of local projects per person this year, on average, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group.

Palin actually reduced the state government's requests for special projects this year to 31 earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 person, in the wake of President Bush's demand for a cutback in earmarks.

The state government's earmark requests to Congress in her first year in office exceeded $550 million, more than $800 per resident. But there's only so much Palin could do with state bureaucrats used to a free-flowing spigot of federal dollars from Washington.

"I have championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress," Palin said in her vice presidential campaign trail debut last week.

Palin's current request to Stevens, "would still put Alaska No. 1," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that tracks earmarks closely.

The McCain campaign said Tuesday that Palin realized that Alaska was too reliant on earmarks and ordered state officials to cut back on their requests. It also said Obama requested nearly $1 billion in earmarks over three years for Illinois — a state with nearly 20 times the population of Alaska.

"We cannot and must not rely so heavily on federal government earmarks," Palin told state legislators in January.

Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year as he and Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton manuevered on the issue. Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $24 worth for every Illinoisan.

For his part, McCain doesn't seek pork projects.

Budget watchdogs allied with McCain have annually railed against Stevens, Alaska's senior senator, and his state's addiction to earmarks, those locally popular pet projects added to the federal budget by senators and House members. McCain and Stevens are not friends, and the two men have openly clashed on the Senate floor over earmarks.

In addition to Palin's requests on behalf of the state government this year, 124 public and private entities in Alaska have asked Stevens for earmarks this year.

In her earlier political career as mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a private lobbyist to help the tiny town secure earmarks from Stevens, entering Washington's "pay to play" culture in which lobbyists, campaign contributions and lawmakers are intertwined.

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