DeMint: Alaska primary a wake-up call on pork

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said challenger Joe Miller's upset of incumbent Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in last week's primary is a sign voters are sick of Republicans who focus on securing funding for state projects instead of sticking to their conservative principles.

"It's encouraging to me what happened in Alaska with Miller," Mr. DeMint told The Wall Street Journal. "It should be a wake-up call to Republicans that politicians who go to Washington to bring home the bacon aren't wanted — even in a state like Alaska that has gotten so much pork under senators like Ted Stevens. Voters are saying 'We're not willing to bankrupt the country to benefit ourselves.'"

While earmarks may form only a small percentage of the overall federal budget, DeMint said their impact is far greater because they symbolize the kind of backroom deal-making in politics that turns off many Americans.

"They always say, it's just a small amount of money, but earmarks always enlarge our budget and buy votes so that massive bills can go through," he said. Lawmakers can't advocate for spending cuts because "when we direct money back home through earmarks, it makes us complicit in the spending process. It's a killer."

DeMint, who is favored to win reelection against Democrat Alvin Greene, said he considered not running for reelection a year ago because of his frustration with his colleagues in Washington. Instead he started a political action committee to boost more conservative Republican Senate candidates including Rand Paul in Kentucky, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Marco Rubio in Florida.

When asked if there were any current GOP Senators who share his distaste for big government, DeMint could only think of one: conservative firebrand Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

"Well, there's Coburn, who has got the courage to go out and make a scene on the floor or to stand up in a conference meeting and stand up to the appropriators. We don't have anyone else," DeMint said.