Washington anti-tax organisation Club for Growth was quick to applaud McCain's pick of Sarah Palin. About an hour before the official announcement August 29, a spokeswoman for the group praised her as "a genuine reformer who has taken on wasteful spending in her own state".
President Pat Toomey said:
At a time when many Republicans are still clinging to pork-barrel politics, Governor Palin has quickly become a leader on this issue. She is a principled reformer who understands how badly wasteful spending has marred the Republican brand.
But since then Republican narrative of Palin as the killer of the "bridge to nowhere" has been exploded by the news media, and it's been revealed that far from rejecting pork barrel money, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist to secure $27m in federal funds for the town. Meanwhile, in fiscal year 2008, Alaska received more federal pork-barrel funds, also known as earmarks, from Washington per capita than any other state, and more than 10 times the national average.
I called up Club for Growth spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik to see if the group had any second thoughts, and to see if I could get her to walk back the initial support. The group is sticking with her, but Soloveichik's basic message had altered slightly.
She said:
Palin has demonstrated recently a recognition that the pork process needs to be reformed, and she's taken positive steps to do that. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have taken no steps and they continue to be a part of the problem, but Palin has shown herself to be part of the solution.
Soloveichik said the group still gives Palin credit for killing the "Bridge to Nowhere", saying that she had angered Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who helped arrange the federal funding.
She still had to stand up to Ted Stevens and Don Young and say this bridge is stupid and we're not going to do it
She said the "pork culture" is deeply engrained in Alaskan politics.
It's been like that for a long time, and that's mostly the work of Ted Stevens and Don Young. I think that shes definitely taken steps in the right direction. and I don't think that people are giving her credit for standing up to the kings of pork.
