The Club has backed businessman Chris Hackett, who has promised not to request earmarks. Hackett is running in the GOP primary to face Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.).
“The key is eliminate the earmarks, drive down taxes, and leave the money in the district,” said Hackett.
Hackett believes Democratic leadership helped Carney secure so much funding for projects — $24 million overall in projects he sponsored by himself or with other lawmakers — to better his reelection chances in his Republican-leaning district. Carney’s staff argues finding federal funding is part of his job.
“Rep. Carney was elected to be the advocate for the people of the 10th district — in tough economic times like these, we’re going to work with local employers to support jobs in the region and continue economic growth,” said Rebecca Gale, a spokeswoman for Carney.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a House Appropriations Committee member, has promised not to request earmarks. And neither will his Democratic opponent.
“Under this current system, I would not [earmark],” said Dan Seals, a business consultant who will face Kirk in November. “I still think too much of it is too determined out of the public view.”
Like the Club, a number of other budget watchdog and ethics groups have begun to keep close tabs on candidates’ positions. Many are pushing pledges to reform the process and limit the scope of lawmakers’ earmark requests.
Some candidates and incumbents have signed a pledge crafted by the Citizens Against Government Waste to disclose all of their earmark requests as well as restrict those requests to authorized federal in-state projects.
Lynn Jenkins, Kansas’s state treasurer, signed that pledge, but her primary opponent, former Rep. Jim Ryun (R-Kan.), has gone further by promising not to request any earmarks. Jenkins and Ryun are angling to run against Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.) this fall.
Larry Kissell, a high school teacher running against Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.), wants to bring more earmarks back to the district.
“If earmarks are still part of the system in January 2009, then yes, I would try to get the badly needed help set aside that our district needs,” said Kissell in a statement to The Hill. “We need to get the rate of return up when it comes to what we send Washington versus the help we get back, and given that our long-term incumbent sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I’d think he’d do more than he has to help.”
That response puzzled Hayes’s staff.
“Actually, the facts show that Congressman Hayes has been extremely effective for his district, and it’s bizarre that Larry Kissell is attacking about too few earmarks when he is on record complaining about too many earmarks,” said Amanda Little, Hayes’s spokeswoman. “I really don’t know what his position is.”
Kissell complained about earmarks going to special interests after the president’s State of the Union address earlier this year, according to a local press report. Kissell Communications Director Steve Hudson said his candidate’s position on earmarks has been consistent, adding that Kissell believes more resources need to be brought home to the district.
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