Earmarks

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) says that Jack Abramoff never influenced him, but Abramoff says in Vanity Fair that he got everything he ever asked for from Burns: “Every appropriation we wanted [from Burns’ committee] we got. Our staffs were as close as they could be. They practically used Signatures [Abramoff’s restaurant] as their cafeteria."Burns’ former staffers have also made millions from going to work for telecom and tech firms that have received funding from Burns earmarks.

The largest known donor to Rick Santorum’s charity, The Operation Good Neighbor Foundation, is Preferred Real Estate, Inc., which donated $25,000 in 2002. Preferred Real Estate officers and spouses also donated $22,350 to Santorum’s re-election campaign and $6,000 to his Political Action Committee, America’s Foundation. Preferred Real Estate is the developer of the Wharf at Rivertown project in Chester, PA, the site of a former Peco Energy plant, which it bought for $1. Santorum’s campaign web site boasts of winning $8.5 million in federal funding for the Preferred Real Estate riverfront project, in the form of a HUD grant. He also obtained another $6 million in highway development earmarks to build access to the riverfront project from Interstate 95 and U.S. 322. More at the Philadelphia Daily News (via Talking Points Memo).