Center of Public Integrity: Blunt provided $3 million earmark to former staffer

The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan group which investigates the influence of money in politics, is accusing Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt of arranging a nearly $4 million earmark for EaglePicher, a client of his former chief of staff Gregg Hartley:

The Center for Public Integrity reports that former Blunt chief of staff Gregg Hartley, who now works for DC lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates and is registered as a lobbyist for EaglePicher Technologies, has given Blunt $11,783 in campaign contributions over the last three years after leaving Blunt's staff. Blunt, as a Republican whip, provided a $3,920,000 earmark in a 2008 bill for "Advanced Lithium-Carbon Monoflouride Combat Portable Batteries."

Of course, it could be just as easily argued that the earmark was an economic boon to the Joplin area.