The wreck of the Jim Oberstar? cont'd

We wrote here about the poll suggesting that Republican candidate Chip Cravaack was giving 18-term Democratic incumbent and porkmeister Jim Oberstar all he can handle in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District. The internal Cravaack campaign poll showed Cravaack trailing Oberstar 42-45 percent, suggesting that Oberstar was, almost unbelievably, at risk of losing this race. Michael Barone vouched for the reputation of Public Opinion Strategies, the company that conducted the poll for Cravaack, and that was good enough for me.

The poll was a stunner. The Oberstar campaign has been attacking it as a push poll. In a brief article yesterday, the Star Tribune simply noted that the Cravaack campaign has declined to release the poll questionnaire in the course of reporting that Newt Gingrich predicts Cravaack will upset Oberstar. (Today the Star Tribune runs an AP story on the race noting that Oberstar has something like a 10-1 money advantage over Cravaack.)

I wrote Cravaack campaign communications director Kyler Nerison to ask about the POS poll and Oberstar's attack on it. Nerison provided this response to my message:

All great democracies feature documents that capture the spirit of the moment and define the stark choices we often face in protecting our freedoms.

The annual “Pig Book http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/releases/2010/earmark-spending-165.html

from Citizens Against Government Waste is just such a document. As Congressional pork barrel earmarks have decimated our economic freedom, plunged the nation into debt and eroded our sovereignty, this comprehensive database uses the power of the First Amendment to expose what our elected officials in Washington are doing with respect to this murky, slimy process.

Sadly, despite the growing national debt, rising voter anger, and a promise to “change” Washington, the earmark process rolls along enabled by politicians who are addicted to spending as surely as David Hasselhoff is addicted to booze.

In 2010, there were some 9,129 earmarks worth $16.5 billion. Most troubling, over $6 billion of those earmarks blatantly violated Congress’ own rules against anonymous earmarks, depriving the public of its right to know which members of Congress asked for earmarks.

So what of Minnesota’s delegation? The Pig’s Book searchable database on House members

(Senate will come later) shows the following:

http://www.cagw.org/reports/pig-book/2010/pork-database.html

District 8: Jimmy Bikeshorts Oberstar (DFL)

33 earmarks worth over $72 million

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