Obama Got Earmarks For Wife’s Cousin, Donors

Shortly after launching his political career as a state legislator, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama steered hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to his family and financial supporters.

The Illinois State Senate documents the Obama presidential campaign doesn’t want the public to see document how he allocated substantial amounts of public money to relatives and political supporters while representing the 13th District in Springfield.

Obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act, the legislative records show that Obama secured a $25,000 grant for an organization headed by Michelle Obama’s cousin (Capers Funnye) and hundreds of thousands more for his friends and political backers.

The up-and-coming young lawmaker obtained $100,000 for a campaign worker’s failed Englewood garden project, another $100,000 for a church headed by a radical priest and political contributor and $75,000 for an organization (Fulfilling Our Responsibility Unto Mankind—FORUM) that donated heavily to his state senate coffers and helped pay the debt from his failed 2000 congressional run.

The Englewood garden project never materialized and, according to a Chicago newspaper, the site is a mess of weeds, chunks of concrete and garbage. No word from the Obama camp on what happened to the $100,000 he allocated for the project. In 2002 the state sued the head of FORUM for failure to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars received from Obama’s grant.

Click here to see Obama’s actual earmark requests as a state senator and to get more information on the well-connected recipients of the tax dollars.