By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff

Georgia Democrat Jim Marshall took out an election-year insurance policy when he introduced legislation last week that would tighten House disclosure rules for earmarks, the pet projects lawmakers target to their home districts.

Marshall, a perennial target of the GOP, never before has been at the forefront of the debate over so-called pork barrel spending, so his proposal to tighten House disclosure rules was unexpected. After all, in Marshall’s first two terms, it was the other party that ran the process and he could do little to change it from the back benches of the Democratic side of the House.

But with Democrats now in charge, Republicans see an opportunity for attack. GOP challengers across the country are ramping up their rhetoric against Democratic incumbents who support an earmarking system that has been made more transparent by new disclosure rules but has received less scrutiny and undergone fewer changes than some would like.

Republicans have slammed Democrats for leaving “loopholes” in disclosure rules adopted in 2007, and they might use Democrats’ reluctance to sign on to GOP initiatives to argue that they are not interested in overhauling the process.

Many conservative Republicans in Congress say that earmarks are a potent symbol of out-of-control spending in Washington and that they factored significantly in the GOP’s loss of congressional power in the 2006 election.

So Marshall is not the only Democrat facing earmarks as an issue in his upcoming race. On the campaign trail, several Republican candidates already have made earmarks an integral part of their platform.

Lynn Jenkins, running in Kansas’ 2nd District, jumped on the issue early by saying new Democratic transparency rules are “cosmetic and have done little to reduce wasteful spending.

In Arizona’s 5th District, Republican David Schweikert has illustrated his campaign to restrict government spending with the image of a chained piggy bank on his website, saying: “I will work to eliminate the terribly irresponsible and corrupting practice of earmarking or pork barrel spending.”

The leading Republican contender to take Marshall on in Georgia’s 8th District in November, Rick Goddard, also has been critical of Democrats’ handling of pet projects spending.

Marshall, himself, did not campaign heavily on the earmark issue in 2006, when the Republicans were still in charge. But now he has a self-fashioned shield to deflect forthcoming parries from Goddard or anyone else.

“It might be a very good defensive strike,” said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. Bullock said Marshall, who won by just 1,752 of the 160,000 votes cast in his battle against former Rep. Mac Collins in 2006, should have an easier time at the polls this year.

“I don’t think Marshall’s going to win with huge margins. I think he wins comfortably this year,” Bullock said, noting the fundraising difficulty Republicans are having nationally and Collins’ ability to court help as a former lawmaker. CQ Politics rates the race Leans Democratic.

In a presidential election year in a district that favored Republican George W. Bush over Democrat John Kerry in 2004, Marshall does not appear to be taking any chances. His measure would ensure that earmarks dropped into conference reports — or added to bills traded between the chambers — would be disclosed like other earmarks and that their sponsors would have to certify that they have no financial interest in the projects.

Though the “loopholes” were not exploited by Democrats or Republicans to avert earmark disclosure in the year-end omnibus spending bill, Marshall’s resolution would change House rules to address some of the criticism of the current system.

“There were a couple of loopholes created. I don’t think there was anything nefarious,” Marshall spokesman Doug Moore said. “Like a lot of legislation that is radically changing the system, there are some kinks that have to be worked out. This is one of those situations where nobody envisioned that this wasn’t covered.”

Moore said his boss was not thinking about the campaign trail when he introduced the measure.

“This isn’t a hot-button issue in the district,” he said.

But he acknowledged that “it won’t hurt us politically.”