Republican Congressman Ron Kline has been criticized by local officials in his Minnesota district for not seeking an earmark for a road to link the Interstate with a busy regional highway.
"I told [Kline] I'd prefer that he continue to work within the system while fighting it. The projects that we were requesting were very worthy projects," said Jon Ulrich, a local commissioner, in recent
Government Executive article.
Steve Sarvi, a Democratic candidate for Kline’s seat has deliberately chosen to run against Kline’s anti-earmark position. In a December 2007
opinion piece for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Sarvi made the following comments:
“For every "bridge to nowhere" -- the infamous Alaskan project that, it bears noting, Kline voted for in 2005 -- there are many projects for which Minnesota's congressional delegation can and should seek federal dollars. These projects are not extravagant or wasteful -- and members of Congress who seek them in the interest of the people they represent are not corrupt; they are doing their job . . .
“Citizens, local government and state government must do their parts to ensure that we raise and spend tax dollars appropriately. Our members of Congress do not engage in corruption, as Kline claims, when they work hard to see that Minnesota's sorely needed tax dollars come back to our state instead of going elsewhere. Our representatives are supposed to go to bat for us; it's one of the things we ‘hire’ them to do. If they don't want to do it, the good people of Minnesota can hire someone else.”