“I don’t consider it pork,” Hare said. “My job is to get every penny I can back to this district.”

Hare submitted every appropriations request for consideration. He said he carried notes with him and took every chance to “annoy” House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., to support the projects.

“I didn’t turn down one,” he said. “If a community wants it and it works, it’s not my job to tell them what they need and don’t need.”

Hare said all the proposals he received had significant community support.

The top earmarks for the 17th District will benefit the Quad-Cities. Hare brought home $1.2 million for the construction of River Tech Boulevard. The road will provide flood resistant access to the Western Illinois University Quad-Cities Campus and the Mississippi River Urban Technology Corridor in Moline.

An earmark for Rock Island’s Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center started off at $200,000 and grew to nearly $1 million to build a new technology center and training room and expand the center’s training and mentoring programs.

Hare said more than $1 billion of federal money for Illinois is being held up because the state legislature has failed to pass its Capital Bill. He cited improvements to U.S. highways 34 and 336 in his district that are “ready to go” and are just waiting on funding.

Hare is impatient with the gridlock in Springfield and said he has urged state legislators to “take a leap and get this done.”

As for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, “I have called this governor at least 18 times and left messages,” Hare said. “He’s never returned a call.”