News Summary

WASHINGTON — When TPI Composites showed off the new armored vehicle it helped build at its growing Ohio factory in Springfield last year, company officials invited U.S. Rep. David L. Hobson as a special guest, hailing his crucial support for using the company's material in a lightweight Humvee for the Army.

Even as the July 20 unveiling took place, the Springfield Republican was hard at work trying to land more taxpayer dollars for the Rhode Island-based company. Later last year, Hobson succeeded in winning $2.4 million for TPI's all-composite military vehicle project as part of the 2008 defense spending bill. That was on top of more than $11.3 million Hobson had gained for the company in the previous three years.

Just three days after the July 20 TPI event, Juliet Pacquing, a Washington lobbyist who counts TPI among her clients, contributed $1,000 to Hobson's campaign when she attended his annual golf fundraiser.

TPI executives have donated another $10,000 to Hobson in recent years, according to Federal Election Commission records compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

The relationship between companies lusting for government contracts and members of Congress who have the power to hand out the money has sparked intense controversy.

Any member of the House and Senate can insert pet projects, dubbed earmarks, into a spending bill. The number of earmarks and their cost to taxpayers has exploded in recent years, sparking complaints of profligate spending run amok and lawmakers steering federal dollars to benefit political associates, business partners or campaign contributors more than the public.

Of course, many lawmakers, including Hobson, steer federal dollars to children's hospitals, public universities and local governments to build roads, bridges and sewer systems. And congressional records show that Hobson often wins earmarks for companies that have not contributed to his campaigns.

But Hobson, like other lawmakers, also earmarks money to private companies whose officials often return the favor with campaign contributions. While the practice is legal, critics complain that earmarks add to the federal deficit and provide incumbent lawmakers with a handy tool to raise campaign dollars.

"It's money lawmakers need to get re-elected, to run their campaigns," said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington organization.

"It's not (money) in their own pockets, but it helps them. That is having a financial relationship with a company. The companies are patrons of lawmakers, and they are getting favors back."

Hobson and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, are among the most proficient Ohio lawmakers who plug earmarks into spending bills. Both are members of the House Appropriations Committee, which decides how federal dollars are spent.

Kaptur got more than $50 million in earmarks as part of the 2008 spending bills, most of them steered toward public or nonprofit entities. But she also got earmarks for some companies whose executives have handed over campaign contributions

For example, Kaptur won $4 million for Impact Engineering of Virginia. Records show that Michael Cummins, president of Impact, donated $3,500 to Kaptur's campaigns from 2004 through 2006.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, also a member of the Appropriations Committee, won more than $14 million in earmarks in 2008 spending bills, mostly for community organizations and local universities such as Youngstown State. But several recipients were private companies that listed executives as campaign contributors.

For instance, AlphaMicron, a company based in Kent, in northeastern Ohio, got a $1 million earmark via Ryan to help pay for research into an Air Force pilot's visor able to change tint instantly. Three of the company's executives have given Ryan nearly $15,000 in campaign contributions since 2005, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' database.

The company's research has paid off in a commercial product, ski goggles. While it still is working on the technologically complex Air Force visor, it is close to getting contracts from other branches of the military to use the technology in other ways, such as goggles for sailors on Navy aircraft carriers and soldiers going into buildings in urban combat, said AlphaMicron's CEO, Bahman Taheri.

Taheri said he is a Democrat who has given to other party causes and candidates. Any contributions to Ryan are because he can accomplish a lot for the district and the country, not because he won AlphaMicron an earmark, Taheri said, adding that the company's 32 employees are nearly double the number from three years ago.

Hobson, who is retiring at the end of the year after nine terms in Congress, said he doesn't choose earmarks based on campaign contributions.

"I don't look at how much money people have given me," he said. "I don't care who gives me money. If we don't think it is good, we won't do it. At some point you have to say to yourself, 'Do I trust the person in this office to do the right thing and stand up and say no at the right time?' People shouldn't have voted for me if they thought I could be bought."

It serves a good purpose for watchdog to keep an eye on earmarks, he said.

"I do think that you need to watch out for the bad eggs," he said. "And if you find one, you take care of it.

"(Watchdog groups) force people to look at what they're really asking for (and) make sure they can justify what they are asking for," he said.

Hobson said he stands by every earmark he's ever done, which he has tried to make available to the public.

"I would think that if people were upset, we'd have calls and letters and blogs," he said. "But I haven't gotten not one negative letter or phone call to any one of my three offices over this."

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