Democrat in Kansas Senate race makes earmarks issue

The Associated Press

8/21/2008

TOPEKA, Kan. — Sen. Pat Roberts saw it as a boon for Kansas: a federal highway bill setting aside $94 million for specific projects he advocated, from an interchange at Lone Elm Road in Olathe to improvements along Wyatt Earp Boulevard in Dodge City.

The Kansas Republican now faces questions about that 2005 legislation in running for re-election against Democrat Jim Slattery. The measure also contained $223 million worth of funding earmarks for the "bridge to nowhere," linking mainland Alaska to an island with about 50 residents.

Slattery mentioned the infamous bridge in his latest television ad. He proposes that Congress stop earmarking for a year and adopt new rules to prevent wasteful spending. Roberts voted for reforms last year, but Slattery contends the incumbent isn't tough enough.

Still, even Slattery isn't seeking an end to earmarks, just a system in which projects compete and the best ones get the dollars. The flow of money back home remains one way for voters to measure a senator's or House member's effectiveness.

"It's completely consistent with a representative function," said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist. "As with everything else, in small doses and done reasonably, it's effective and necessary."

Slattery is trying to become the first Democrat since 1932 to win a Senate race in Kansas. The state's historic GOP leanings give Roberts a big advantage, and the incumbent raised more than $4 million before the August primary, four times as much as Slattery.

Roberts has spent four decades in Washington, working as a congressional aide and representing the 1st District of western Kansas in the House in 1981-96, before winning the first of two Senate terms. Slattery represented the 2nd District of eastern Kansas in 1983-94, ran unsuccessfully for governor and became a Washington lobbyist.

Slattery is trying to position himself as a candidate of change. He argues earmarks have become a huge problem in the past 15 years, loading the budget with waste, deepening the deficit and hurting the economy.

"Both political parties are guilty of this," Slattery said during a recent interview. "It just has to stop. It's gotten completely out of control."

Roberts described the earmarks he seeks as investments for improving the state's economy and says he makes them public because, "I am confident all can withstand the flashlight of public scrutiny."

The incumbent noted that he voted for new Senate rules in 2007 that require earmarks to be disclosed 48 hours before a vote on them.

But Slattery contends those changes didn't go far enough. He said earmarks should be disclosed 48 hours after they're requested, and Congress must rank projects on merit.

He criticizes Roberts for voting this year against a one-year moratorium on earmarks and against an amendment to the 2005 highway bill to take money from the much-derided Alaskan bridge and direct it to a bridge project for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

"In the past, mostly the attitude was, 'More is better.' That may be a little different now," said David Rohde, a Duke University political scientist. "People have been worried about the budget deficit. People have been worried about government waste. They might not look kindly on maximizing the flow of public monies to constituencies."

However, many Democrats opposed both proposals Slattery cites. The Katrina-related amendment received only 15 votes, and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, voted no.

As for the Alaska project, Roberts said: "I don't expect my Senate colleagues to tell Kansas what our priority projects should be, and I don't think I should be telling other states what their priorities should be."

Baker said lawmakers try to avoid alienating powerful colleagues because some of them, like Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, can sink home-state projects.

"There's a reality up on Capitol Hill," said Mike Taylor, spokesman for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., "that money is there in those budgets, and if they don't work to get it for Kansas, a Ted Stevens in Alaska is going to snatch up everything there is."

Taylor and Tim Danneberg, a spokesman for Olathe who pursues federal funding for the city's projects, said the Kansas delegation scrutinizes requests and requires local officials to justify them.

The 2005 highway bill set aside $3 million for the Lone Elm Road project, a $67 million interchange on Interstate 35 to be finished next year. Olathe officials believe private companies will invest $500 million in the area and create 5,000 jobs because of it.

"We could not have done it without federal help," Danneberg said. "We're paying for most of it, but we need help to get over the last hurdle."

Baker said most earmarks, especially smaller ones, never receive much attention, and the practice of earmarking doesn't become an issue, "unless there is really a bizarre example." He put the Alaska bridge in that category.

At the end of 2005, public scrutiny led Congress to remove the earmarks. Last year, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pulled the state's support for the project, and the bridge hasn't been built.

Still, the bridge to nowhere remains a potent symbol.

"If I were Jim Slattery," Baker said, "I would certainly raise the earmark issue."