Who gets earmarks?
With all the discussion going on of earmarks and Alaska, I thought I would bring a couple of papers that might clarify the debate. Melissa Boyle and Victor Matheson of Holy Cross recently wrote a short paper on the determinants of earmark spending. It fits a few points that are important: • The party in power gets more earmarks. Their study looks at 2000 through 2006, and Republican senators were able to get more than Democratic senators. • The more senior that senator is, the more powerful they are and the more earmarks they can steer home. • Because, unlike the House, the Senate provides two seats to each state, smaller states will have a larger per capita figure as they have disproportionate power in one half of Congress. (This is, as they mention, the Constitutional compromise that helped end the Articles of Confederation.) Now that description all points to one guy, Sen. Ted Stevens, who happens to be the senator of the state from where Gov. Palin hails. Regardless of her actions,
