Does an earmark serve as the cause of a campaign contribution, or does a campaign contribution produce an earmark? The answer to this question is yes.

 

As an individual who worked in Capitol Hill's pork system for decades and who observed that system expand to the point of dominating how members think and behave in the House and Senate, I find it useful to keep abreast of what Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) reports on the various pork-laden bills going through Congress, especially the DOD spending bills from the House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committees. A review of the committees' (incomplete) revelations of pork in their bills and reports poses another question: which is the porkiest of the four defense committees on Capitol Hill? Again, the answer is yes.

 

See the message below from Laura Peterson at Taxpayers for Common Sense about the money two Senators have attracted before, during, and after their porking efforts in the DOD Appropriations bill. Follow the links at the TCS website to the earmarks the other three defense committees released to the public, and find also what they didn't list. See if you disagree with my answer to my second question above.

 

A third question: after the 34-64 Senate vote yesterday (Wednesday) to continue C-17 production, now 25 aircraft above the existing DOD requirement for them, which senator will get the largest money donation from Boeing and its executives, PACs and friends?

 

A real puzzler, eh?

 

 

This posted on our web site today:

Taxpayers for Common Sense has mapped the connections between earmarks and campaign contributions for the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.

Click here for the related database

New chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) requested 46 earmarks worth $330.8 million and received 35 earmarks worth $206.5 million in the final bill. Inouye has received $173,000 in campaign contributions since 2007 from the companies he requested earmarks for. The biggest donor among them is Lockheed Martin, which operates a major facility in Hawaii and donated $61,300.

But Inouye was bested by Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS), who requested 103 earmarks worth $775.3M and secured 48 earmarks worth $216 million (this includes two earmarks worth $4.1 million that were not listed among Cochran’s original requests). Cochran received $144,500 in campaign contributions from entities for which he requested earmarks. His biggest donor is shipbuilder and defense giant Northrop Grumman, which has contributed $24,050 to Cochran since 2007.

The research is part of our ongoing investigation of lawmakers with the greatest influence over our largest spending bill. Check back with us later for campaign contribution data on the entire subcommittee.  You can see our House version here.