“In 2005 Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska championed a $10 million earmark for a highway interchange. The earmark appeared in an 835-page transportation bill called SAFETEA-LU. Rep. Young was the man behind Alaska’s infamous $233 million ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ so this sounds like nothing unusual for him, except that … * The project wasn’t in Alaska, but as far away as possible, in the Florida district of Republican Rep. Connie Mack. * Mack and other local Republicans opposed the project. There were environmental concerns and higher priorities. * But they were told that they had to accept the project or risk losing future federal funds. Why? Because a local developer who owned 4,000 acres near the proposed interchange had raised $40,000 for Rep. Young’s re-election campaign.” (05/12/08)