The ad wars continue to run hot down in Florida’s three-way Senate race, but the lines of attack keep shifting. Florida’s Republican governor Charlie Christ, running as an independent, seems to have exhausted his ability to steal Democrats away from Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), and has now wheeled around on More…
Joe Miller, now officially Alaska’s Republican candidate for Senate, is another insurgent who fits into a pattern Jesse has identified of politicians shirking earmarks in the run-up to November’s election.
It’s a particularly surprising stance to take in Alaska, where the late Sen. Ted Stevens unabashedly brought home dollars More…
Another Senate candidate is resisting the changing political calculus surrounding earmarks, in which candidates have begun shying away from touting the spending projects they typically brag about bringing home to their state or district.
In addition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who’s made no bones about the More…
Arizonans also go to the polls today, but the much anticipated GOP Senate primary race between Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Rep. J. D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) hasn’t materialized into the close contest that many, including McCain, feared it might have. One reason it never got dicey for McCain, however, More…
The rhetoric on earmarks and “pork barrel spending“ keeps paying dividends for conservative advocacy groups looking to undermine House Democrats in swing districts. Today the beneficiary is the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, which says it’s “committed to educating citizens about economic policy and a return of the federal government to More…
During Utah’s bruising Republican Senate primary battle, challenger Mike Lee repeatedly attacked longtime incumbent Bob Bennett for his habit of requesting earmarks. But Lee also pledged to fight to keep NASA’s Constellation program — a big source of jobs in Utah — alive through congressional spending. Bennett tried in vain More…
More on Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kans.). While he might be the darling of Sarah Palin and Tea Party groups in today’s Kansas GOP Senate primary, they can’t be thrilled about his long record with lobbyists and earmarks throughout his congressional career on the House Appropriations Committee.
In the House, the appropriations committee is marking up spending bills, which means that rhetoric about earmarks is about to ramp up. Yesterday, the House passed a bill defunding more than $700 million in aging earmarks, and in the Senate, a measure that would create an earmark database More…
Of the 532 sitting members of Congress, just 76 are female. But tonight, the hottest elections on tap feature female candidates regarded as major game changers in their states. In addition to a decisive Senate primary runoff in Arkansas, primary voters go to the polls tonight in a total of More…
Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, reports on his blog that earmarks have declined sharply, down 17 percent in volume and 27 percent in dollar value between 2009 and 2010:
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