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If It's Chet Edwards...

By Philip Klein on 8.22.08 @ 1:14PM

I would expect the McCain campaign to go after him on spending. Edwards sits on both the House Budget and the Appropriations Committees, and if you check out his official campaign website, it's filled with links to stories boasting about how many earmarks Edwards secured for his Texas district (see an example here). In fact, the site even features an interactive map inviting constituents to "click an area on the map for more about Chet's Accomplishments" -- and wherever you click, it produces another example of money he "secured" for a local project.

UPDATE: Edwards has a 19 percent rating with Citizens Against Government Waste, a score which they define as "hostile" to taxpayers. In its database for 2007 alone, CAGW lists 73 earmarks with Edwards's fingerprints on them, totaling $128.4 million. A quick glance at some of the projects include money for pecan research and for bee research. This was just a quick search on my part. I would guess that over the course of his 18-year career, there's plenty more fodder.

topics:
Earmarks