Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have taken strong stands against earmarks in an effort to portray themselves as fiscally responsible reformers, but they have also relied on fundraisers and advisers who have fueled the explosion in special spending projects.

At least 19 of McCain’s biggest fundraisers have lobbied on appropriations bills in the past year and a half. Many of them have tried to steer funds to colleges, municipalities and companies that have hired them, according to public records.

McCain has been the most outspoken opponent of earmarks on the campaign trail. Last month he vowed to veto every bill with earmarks if he became president.

But while he has declared war against earmarks, he has also relied on the fundraising of lobbyists who have earned tens of thousands of dollars pushing for them.

One lobbyist, Rob Chamberlin of McBee Strategic Consulting, has lobbied on appropriations for a long list of clients such as Northrop Grumman, the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, the Snohomish County Public Utility District and the City of Everett, Wash., according to public records.

Chamberlin, who co-hosted a Washington fundraiser for McCain last month, declined to comment for this article. This year he has withdrawn from the accounts of several McBee clients seeking appropriations.

Another significant McCain fundraiser, former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), has worked to steer funds to St. Francis College, Molloy College and the New York University Child Study Center. His firm earned $70,000 representing these New York Schools in 2008.

Critics of earmarks argue the requests have swelled the federal budget and created opportunities for waste and corruption.

McCain has long taken a hard-line stand against earmarks. He has often battled members of the Appropriations Committee over projects.  

Some of McCain’s biggest fundraisers and most senior advisers have helped clients win hundreds of thousands of dollars in earmarks.

Charlie Black, a senior campaign adviser who worked recently as a lobbyist with BKSH & Associates, helped Cook Children’s Health Care  System secure $740,000 for medical equipment.  

John Green, a McCain fundraiser and lobbyist for Ogilvy Government Relations, helped the University of Chicago secure at least two earmarks worth more than $800,000 in total. Green left Ogilvy recently to work for McCain’s campaign.

McCain’s lobbying ties have drawn fire from the Obama campaign.

“Sen. McCain has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists during the campaign and is just now scrambling to purge his campaign of lobbyists after nearly 15 months and a string of embarrassing revelations — so it’s no surprise that his fundraisers would be acting in conflict with his own ‘no earmarks’ policy,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.

One lobbyist who has raised tens of thousands for McCain predicted: “I’m sure people will talk to him and he won’t be as resilient or difficult as the campaign rhetoric.”

McCain aides dispute this possibility.

“The very idea that John McCain would soften his stance on earmarks after years of fighting wasteful spending is as absurd as the notion that Barack Obama, who voted for the ‘bridge to nowhere’ and the pork-laden farm bill, could possibly be an effective advocate for American taxpayers,” said McCain spokeswoman Crystal Benton.

Obama was not present to vote on the farm bill, but he did send out a statement of support after the Senate passed it.

Obama has recently taken a zero-tolerance stance on earmarks.

He staked out his position in March when he co-sponsored a one-year moratorium on earmarks.

“We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’s seniority, rather than the merit of the project,” said Obama. “We can no longer accept an earmarks process that has become so complicated to navigate that a municipality or no-profit group has to hire high-priced D.C. lobbyists to do it.”

Before this year, however, Obama pushed for earmarks that would have benefited campaign contributors.

In 2007, he requested $5.9 million in earmarks for the Field Museum in Chicago, whose board members had given his campaign tens of thousands of dollars that year.

“Roof repair will allow for environmental engineering to alter the flow of water from the roof, capturing and return[ing] clean rainwater back to Lake Michigan and thereby decreas[ing] the amount of water entering the City’s water treatment facilities,” Obama’s staff wrote in a statement disclosing his earmark requests.

The request has come under scrutiny because the Field Museum is flush with money. The museum reported $101 million in revenue and $71 million in expenses during 2006, leaving it a plum surplus of nearly $30 million.

Several Obama backers sit on the museum’s board. John McCarter, the Field’s president and CEO, gave $2,500 to Obama last year, according to public fundraising records. Kelly R. Welsh, the vice chairman of auditing, gave $4,600 in 2007. John A. Canning Jr. gave $4,600 in March of last year. McCarter, Welsh and Canning did not return calls for comment.

In total, more than 20 members of the museum’s board of trustees have given to Obama in the last year and a half.

Chart: Selected lobbying activity of McCain campaign fundraisers