Murray touts bringing home the bucks

It was the start of a typical weekend back home for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.

At a late July news conference in downtown Seattle, she celebrated the $44 million she'd secured for repairs to the Howard Hanson Dam.

The money tucked into an emergency appropriations bill will shore up the weakened 49-year-old bulwark protecting the Green River Valley from devastating floods. "This is a big win for our region," Murray said, flanked by local mayors and Boeing officials.

Then the Democratic senator was off to South Seattle to tour businesses at the foot of the South Park Bridge. Trailed by a gaggle of television cameras, Murray touted her $3 million earmark to help pay for replacement of the recently closed drawspan.

Even in an election year when many Americans are worried about the $13 trillion federal debt — and with her Republican challengers swearing off earmarks and calling for deep budget cuts — Murray is campaigning unabashedly on her ability to bring home federal money.

"You bet that seniority and leadership has a big thing to do with it, but the other part of it is, I get up every day and I work hard and I believe in this and I am going to continue fighting for the community I represent," Murray told reporters at the South Park event.

It's a classic incumbent argument for re-election, but one that Murray's leading Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, hopes to turn against her.

"There is nothing in the Constitution that says a senator has to bring home pork," Rossi said in an interview last week.

Congress should halt earmarks until the budget is balanced, Rossi said, arguing anything worth funding is worth doing "in the main body of the budget," not in earmarks inserted "in the middle of the night."

Risen in ranks

First elected in 1992, Murray has risen to become the fourth-ranking Democrat in the Senate and chairs a powerful appropriations subcommittee. Her office continually works to remind voters what her clout means.

On a single day in late July, Murray's staff churned out nine news releases announcing nearly $15 million in earmarked funding for 35 projects across the state.

That included $750,000 for expansion of Grays Harbor Community Hospital and $1 million for an Auburn company's biofuel research. Each announcement came with quotes from grateful recipients.

Once named the "Queen of Pork" by an anti-earmark watchdog group, Murray ranks ninth in the Senate in 2010 earmarks, sponsoring 190 of them worth $220 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

She remains an unapologetic defender of earmarks, and says those who criticize them as an end-run around the budget process are misleading the public.

"Anybody who tries to say this is not within the federal budget process either is not telling the truth or doesn't know what they're talking about," Murray said at the South Park Bridge event.

In recent years, Murray said, Congress has made the earmarking process transparent. They are no longer slipped secretly into legislation, she said. Instead, each request must be disclosed by senators and representatives on their websites.

"There has been a lot of progress. It's much better than it was in 2005 or 2006," said Bill Allison, editorial director for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit group promoting government transparency.

But Allison said Congress still has a ways to go to make the process truly open.

Although members are required to publicly post all earmark requests, there is no standard for how that should be done, Allison noted. That's led to a hodgepodge, with some members burying the information deep within their websites or posting information in nonsearchable image files.

A proposal now before the Senate, the Earmark Transparency Act, would standardize earmark information and require the House and Senate to post it on a searchable website. Murray's office has said she supports the measure, though she has not signed on as one of its 27 co-sponsors.

It's hard to know how much mileage Republicans will get out of attacking Murray's bring-home-the-bacon reputation.

A recent Pew Center/National Journal Congressional Connection poll found a majority of Americans, 53 percent, are more likely to vote for a candidate in the 2010 congressional midterms with "a record of bringing government projects and money" to their districts.

Just 12 percent said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate, while 33 percent said it would make no difference.

"Not a great argument"

"With the economy as bad as it is and jobs down, to complain that your opponent is bringing money, and a direct byproduct of jobs to the state — that's not a great argument in this climate," said Matt Barreto, associate professor of political science at the University of Washington.

Last week, Murray made headlines for helping pass a $26.1 billion package of aid to states, including more than $500 million for Washington public schools and Medicaid costs. Democrats said the measure will save thousands of jobs.

Rossi opposed the state bailout, saying it would only postpone hard budget choices.

Some who have seen Murray's efforts up close say Washington will suffer if she is defeated by an anti-earmark foe.

"If the elected official takes a pledge that they are not going to accept earmarks, then we lose, because we are a very small cog in a very large process here," said Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke, a former Republican state legislator who praised Murray's work on the Howard Hanson Dam.

"The stature of our elected representatives makes a huge difference ... that's the way it is in Washington, D.C., and anyone who deceives themselves into thinking that is going to change — it's not going to happen," Cooke said.

But Murray's Republican challengers see earmarks as symptoms of waste and out-of-control federal spending.

"You've got to reel this in, and you've got to start somewhere," Rossi said.

Hitting stimulus plan

The Rossi campaign this week intends to hit the Democrats' $800 billion federal stimulus plan — which he called "chock-full" of earmarks — for failing to deliver on its promises.

Republicans have even cast a suspicious eye on the $44 million for Howard Hanson Dam, which was not technically an earmark, suggesting it was a cynical election-year ploy.

"For crying out loud. How much is enough, Patty? You gotta go out there and buy your votes? Why is it coming in now?" said Clint Didier, the former NFL player and Pasco farmer also running as Republican in the Aug. 17 U.S. Senate primary.

Rossi also questioned the timing of Murray's dam-funding announcement. "It should have been in the queue probably before that and done with the basic budgeting process," he said.

Emergency money

The dam was weakened after severe storms in January 2009. Murray secured $9 million in earmarks that year for early emergency work on the structure.

But Murray's office said the $44 million funding proposal came from the Army Corps of Engineers only this March.

Murray said she is conscious of the federal debt and the need to reduce spending where possible, but said federal money is key to help the country weather the recession.

"If we don't make investments like this South Park Bridge or the Howard Hanson Dam, then our communities will not come out of this," she said.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com