Republican Rich Iott calls the whole matter an embarrassment. Kaptur says she's done nothing wrong.
Her challenger Iott says, "It's wrong. It's simply wrong. It's not in the spirit of the rule that was established."
The Congresswoman says, "In fact, they were trying to comply with the new rules that were in place."
Back in March, Congressional leaders banned the practice of awarding earmarks to profit-making companies. So Kaptur suggested a way around it. "That day, or it was the day after, I think, we had notified any company that had come to our office, or any organization, profit or non-profit, these are the new rules. And if you want to apply, you have to come in as a not-for-profit."
One for-profit company the New York Times report highlights is Imaging Systems Technology of Toledo, a small defense contracting firm.
Before the ban, the Times reports Kaptur arranged more than $8 million in earmarks for IST. After the ban, the report says a member of the company formed a non-profit called the Great Lakes Research Center. And the Center now has more than $10 million in earmark requests from Kaptur.
Kaptur says it's important for IST's defense research to continue. "Our entire effort has been to comply with the rules and to help job creation across this district, to help smaller companies compete with the very big defense giants."
Iott says, "Marcy Kaptur's efforts to sidestep the Congressional rule meant to ensure openness and transparency in our government is an embarrassment to us here in northwest Ohio and it's an embarrassment to taxpayers nationwide."
Iott is also calling on Kaptur to return campaign contributions from anyone connected to IST. The Times estimates it is tens of thousands of dollars.
Kaptur rejected Iott's comments. "If some have made donations to us, I'm very grateful for that. That does not influence what we do. Our goal has been to create jobs locally and help local companies advance their knowledge."
