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Posts published in “Day: September 2, 2008”

Comparisons: Boise vs. Wasilla

Members of Congress understandably love to tout the bacon they bring home to their states or districts, but rarely do we get the chance to compare how one fares against another.

Today we do, thanks to a Washington Post article about how "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group."

The Post ran a comparison. In 2002, at the end of Palin's service as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city was pulling in $6.1 million in federal earmarks, owing largely to Palin's hiring of a lobby firm. The Post compared to that the amount Boise received in the last fiscal year, 2008, when Boise's population had topped 200,000: The amount was $6.9 million.