Is a politician really a reformer, if they are requesting $300 per person in their state for earmark projects?

Question

John McCain touts Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a force in the his battle against earmarks and entrenched power brokers, but under her leadership the state this year asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from one of McCain's top adversaries: indicted Sen. Ted Stevens.

That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress for the current budget year, and runs counter to the reformer image that Palin and the McCain campaign are pushing. Other states got just $34 worth of local projects per person this year, on average, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080903/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin_earmarks;_ylt=Avh6baeh.rLhHQSTyJw._4is0NUE

Answer 1

I'm sorry to say this but I have a problem with Alaskans as a whole in the political sense. I'm not saying that Alaskans are bad people or anything, but they seem to think that because they choose to live in a god forsaken wasteland of season long nights that they deserve to be treated especially well by the rest of the country. I find it ironic that so many of them vote for republicans since they have one of the most socialist systems you can find in the US outside of the military thanks to the oil fund.

Edit: Could you imagine if Californians started to demand that they get special treatment because it's so expensive to live there? This is essentially what the Alaskans argue...