NEW YORK — John McCain got it wrong Friday when he asserted that his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, had not requested any earmarks, the spending directives lawmakers insert in spending bills that McCain has vowed to eliminate.
Palin, in fact, requested $198 million in federal earmarks in February, including such expenses as $487,000 to fight obesity in Alaska and $4 million to develop recreational trails.
By day's end, the McCain campaign backed down from the claim the GOP presidential candidate made on the ABC television show "The View."
"Sen. McCain was in the throes of a discussion about her record of reforming government, which includes drastic cuts in wasteful spending in the Alaska state budget," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. "If he gave viewers a mistaken impression, it certainly wasn't intentional or without some basis in fact."
Palin's approach to earmarks has been much closer to the views of Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, than of McCain, who wants to end the entire earmark system.
On Friday, in an interview with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson, Palin was asked whether she was in agreement with McCain that earmarks should be eliminated.
"I certainly am," she said.
But later in the same interview, she appeared to indicate she hoped to reform the process, not end it, saying she wanted it "to be in the light of day, not behind closed doors, with lobbyists making deals with Congress to stick things in there under the public radar."
"That's the abuse that we're going to stop," she said.
As recently as this year, Palin indicated her support for earmarks in a column in the Fairbanks News-Miner, calling her earmark request "a responsible approach."
Alaska has consistently been the largest per capita beneficiary of federal earmarks, in part because the state's congressional delegation is powerful and provides well for a small population in a state with a large federal presence.
Palin has requested earmarks from the congressional delegation for years and the delegation has delivered. As mayor of the small town of Wasilla, she hired a lobbyist to help secure earmarks for transportation and other projects. As governor she also requested earmarks, though her requests have declined as she acknowledged growing public disapproval of the practice.
