KENTUCKY’S
KING
ington Post review of three years’
worth of public earmarks, from
2008 through 2010, shows that
McConnell orchestrated the delivery of nearly half a billion dollars in
federal funds, with a pronounced
emphasis on projects in his home
state. If earmarks coordinated with
presidential budgets are included,
the figure swells to $1.5 billion.
Earmarks are no longer part of
McConnell’s political toolkit, but
the senator is still campaigning on
his pork-barrel legacy. Just days
after Alison Lundergan Grimes
formally jumped into the Senate race, he was already reminding voters of the federal benefits
he has steered to Kentucky, and
ridiculing Grimes’ ability to bring
home the bacon as a backbencher.
“Kentucky would lose dramatically by trading in a leader of one
of the two parties in the Senate for
a rookie,” McConnell told reporters on July 3. “Kentucky is in an
extraordinary position of influence
as a result of their confidence in
me over the years. ... Do we really
want to lose the influence?”
The biggest chunk of McConnell’s earmarks were devoted to defense spending, but they financed
an astonishing variety of projects,
including at least $21.9 million on
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13
“KENTUCKY IS IN AN
EXTRAORDINARY POSITION
OF INFLUENCE AS A RESULT
OF THEIR CONFIDENCE
IN ME OVER THE YEARS. ...
DO WE REALLY WANT TO
LOSE THE INFLUENCE?”
civilian health efforts and $24 million for a “medical/dental clinic” at
the Army’s Fort Campbell.
McConnell directed money to
everything from mobile health
screenings to lab upgrades for stem
cell research into heart failure. One
earmark funneled money to a University of Louisville scientist for
groundbreaking research into aging,
with treatment implications for Alzheimer’s and even space travel.
Indeed, the state’s public universities have been big benefactors of the senator’s earmarks.
In the decade before the earmark
ban, McConnell bestowed approximately $140 million on the
University of Kentucky, according
to Bill Schweri, the university’s
director of federal relations. Much
of the McConnell largess went to
new building construction and
steady research support.
Schweri met regularly with McConnell’s staff, becoming intimately