A recent report highlighted some interesting information on both earmarks and campaign contributions. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), who is the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, directed $114.5 million in earmarks to 26 private entities. All 26 of the entities contributed to Rep. Murtha's campaign totaling $413,250 since the beginning of 2005 with $100,750 of these contributions coming in the 2 weeks before the March 16th deadline to file earmark requests.

Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA) is also on the Defense subcommittee and also received campaign contributions from every private entity he directed an earmark to and Rep. Bud Cramer (D-AL) received campaign contributions from 15 of the 16 private entities he directed earmarks to.

On the Republican side of the Appropriations committee, Rep. Bill Young (FL) who is the ranking member on the Defense Subcommittee received campaign contributions from 28 of the 30 groups he directed earmarks to and Rep. David Hobson (OH) received campaign contributions from 11 of the 14 private entities he directed earmarks to.

I will let you draw your own conclusions.