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Capitol Assets: Bringing home the earmarks Here are some members of Congress who have directed federal money to projects close to their personal or commercial property.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) has earmarked more than $100 million toward rebuilding downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., where he owns an office building. The street in front of the building will be redone with other streets as part of the project's second phase. Shelby said there is no conflict between his property and the revitalization project. "I have nothing to hide. I make no money out of it," he said.
J. Scott Applewhite
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AP
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An overview of the newly revitalized downtown Tuscaloosa includes a four-story parking garage, top left, and a park square, top center, with decorative lamps, a fountain and pavilion clock tower. The new $67 million earmark-funded federal courthouse is pictured at top right. Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) owns a 7,800-square-foot gray, one-story building next to the garage. Shelby's block was not razed, though it was classified by project consultants as one of the three most blighted blocks in the proposed 16-block revitalization. The hometown senator also purchased the adjacent parking lot next to his building, which is home to Shelby's Tuscaloosa Title company and his nephew's law firm.
Ben de la Cruz
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The Washington Post
Ed Barton, whose family owned Tuscaloosa Furniture in downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., stands in front of the four-story parking garage the city built after its forced his family to sell its business. His family learned from a newspaper report that the downtown renewal project, financed by more than $100 million in federal earmarks championed by Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), jeopardized the Tuscaloosa Furniture's location. When the business was forced to close in 2006, it had 125,000 square feet of showroom space and five delivery trucks.
Ben de la Cruz
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The Washington Post
Patrons share laughs at Copper Top bar in downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala. City officials say that the more than $100 million downtown revitalization, along with development along the Black Warrior River and the University of Alabama, will help attract crowds to the city's downtown.
Ben de la Cruz
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The Washington Post
Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) helped obtain $187,000 in 2008 toward a beach replenishment survey of the Ocean City shoreline -- more than 90 miles away from his home district of Baltimore County. He and his wife own two condominiums on the beach. He said that the request for funding came from the Maryland governor’s office and that the beach replenishment is critical to the state’s tourism. He said he saw no conflict in his actions. “That’s a stretch to say that thing’s going to benefit me,” he said.
Brian Witte
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AP
Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) owns two units in this oceanfront condominium complex in Ocean City. The congressman helped obtain $187,000 in 2008 toward a beach replenishment survey of the Ocean City shoreline.
Melina Mara
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The Washington Post
The view from Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger's condominium complex in Ocean City. The congressman helped obtain $187,000 in 2008 toward a beach replenishment survey of the Ocean City shoreline.
Melina Mara
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The Washington Post
Between 2003 and 2008, Rep. John W. Olver (D-Mass.) secured $5.1 million in earmarks for a road project and intersection near Hampshire College. The project begins 209 feet from the congressman’s 15-acre home and several adjoining parcels he owns with his wife. Olver said local officials requested the project. “I am concerned about appearances. But I had no monetary interest whatsoever in this project,” Olver said. “I had nothing to do with the design. I was never notified of any of the hearings. I had no involvement whatsoever.”
Michael Gordon
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AP
Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), who has been called the "Prince of Pork" for his success guiding federal money to his home district, helped earmark $7.1 million since 2002 to a project that improved a half-mile strip of the street where Rogers has his residence. The project narrowed parts of the street to slow traffic, buried overhead utilities, rebuilt sidewalks, paved streets and installed new driveway aprons, curbs and decorative lamps. "Congressman Rogers sees no conflict of interest in helping local leaders achieve their goals for growth -- at large or in this case in particular,” his spokesman said.
Sarah L. Voisin
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The Washington Post
Street lamps line College Street, where Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) lives in the yellow house at left, in Somerset, Ky. Rogers was well known for his ability to bring federal dollars to his districts for various projects or improvements, such as the utility line relocation and street improvement plan that was completed on his street.
David Stephenson
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For The Washington Post
College Street, where Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) lives, in Somerset, Ky. Rogers helped earmark $7.1 million since 2002 for a project that narrowed parts of the street to slow traffic, buried overhead utilities, rebuilt sidewalks, paved streets and installed new driveway aprons, curbs and decorative lamps.
David Stephenson
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For The Washington Post
Between 2005 and 2009, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) helped secure $3.3 million to upgrade part of Route 141 in his district west of St. Louis. Less than a half-mile east of Route 141, Akin and his family own nine acres. Akin’s family has applied to construct six homes on the land. His spokesman said Akin's land had no bearing on his support for the earmarks. “It is going to be helpful as a connector but not helpful for residential property values whatsoever,” he said.
Jeff Roberson
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AP
In 2009, Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Tex.) obtained a $665,000 earmark to help widen a road next to a 3.7-acre commercial property his family partnership was developing and near the family food processing plant in Mercedes, Tex. Hinojosa said he saw no conflict in securing an earmark for work next to his property or the plant. “It helps everybody,” he said. “The only way it made sense to handle this tremendous population growth and avoid problems for the school buses that go through that intersection was to widen it.”
Marco Ugarte
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AP
In 2007, Hinojosa's longtime family meat processing plant, H&H Foods in Mercedes, Tex., fell into financial ruin. That collapse eventually pulled the congressman into his own personal bankruptcy. The defunct plant stands behind a fence on Route 83 in Mercedes.
Dan Parker
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For The Washington Post
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) helped secure $900,000 that was used in 2010 to resurface about two dozen roads in Hinds County, Miss. One of those was a quarter-mile residential loop in Bolton, where Thompson owns a home and two lots, and his daughter also owns a home. “I didn’t say, 'Do the street that I live on,'” Thompson said. "The earmark went to the county. It had no designation on it whatsoever, and that was it." He said he secured paving earmarks for other counties as well.
David Jackson
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AP
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) co-sponsored a $6.3 million earmark for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to replenish the beach on Tybee Island in 2008, where he owns a cottage that sits about 900 feet from the beach. Kingston said the beach project doesn’t help his property, which sits a little more than a block from the ocean. "It’s absurd to suggest that this benefits me,” Kingston said. “The beach doesn’t improve the real estate of a house, unless it’s on the beach.”
Ric Feld
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AP
A bulldozer moves sand as water and sand are pumped onto the Tybee Beach near Seventh Street on Oct. 17, 2008 on Tybee Island, Ga. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) co-sponsored a $6.3 million earmark for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to replenish the beach in 2008, where he owns a cottage that sits about 900 feet from the beach.
Richard Burkhart
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Savannah Morning News
In 2009, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) secured a $750,000 earmark to replace an outdated railroad underpass with a new bridge in Pasco, Wash. Columbia Basin Paper & Supply, a janitorial business that Hastings owned and ran until he was elected, is about three blocks to the west. His brother now operates the company, but Hastings and his wife still own the land and the building. Hastings said the location of his property, which he is selling to his brother, had no bearing on his support for the project. “Every business in Pasco will benefit," he said.
Kevin Wolf
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AP
Over the past decade, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) helped secure $50 million in earmarks toward a light-rail project that provides direct access to Union Square and Chinatown for neighborhoods south of Market Street in San Francisco. Pelosi's husband owns a four-story commercial building blocks from Union Square. A Pelosi spokesman said the project was requested by community leaders and the new stations on the line will be farther away from the building from those on the existing line.
Alex Wong
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Getty Images
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