U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole voted against an attempt to take money from the "Bridge to Nowhere."
An earmark for the proposed $398 million Gravina Island Bridge was included in a 2006 Appropriations bill at the request of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. The bridge has been criticized as wasteful spending because it serves an island with just 50 residents.
On Oct. 20, 2005, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn proposed an amendment to the bill that would have shifted $75 million from the Gravina Island Bridge and another project to the rebuilding of the Interstate 10 twin span destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
The amendment failed, 15-82, with Dole voting against it.
Congress later stripped the specific earmark but gave the state of Alaska an equivalent amount of money for any use it considered appropriate.
A recent ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee criticizes Dole for her vote.
"She voted for millions in pork, including Alaska's Bridge to Nowhere," a narrator says as Dole is shown in front of an image of a brown bear. "Elizabeth Dole, fighting for ... Alaska? Definitely out of touch with North Carolina."
Comments
Re: Dole voted to keep Bridge to Nowhere
October 18, 2008 - 8:03am — Gosh (not verified)If you had to sleep with Bob Dole every night, you'd want a bridge to nowhere too.