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Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y, speaks to the media as husband, former President Bill Clinton, left, votes, on Feb. 5 in Chappaqua, New York. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin)

Sen. Hillary Clinton, deemed the top earmarker among presidential candidates, appears to have used special allocations to win endorsements.   

Over the last six months, Clinton provided millions of federal dollars to organizations that had relayed donations to her campaign for president. In some cases, the earmarks came only weeks after she received funding.

In 2007, Clinton obtained more than $1 million in federal funding for a Harlem organization whose leader endorsed her presidential bid. In the $555 billion spending bill for fiscal 2008, approved in December, Clinton joined senior Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Charles Rangel, both New York Democrats, to provide three earmarks for the Abyssinian Development Corp.

"In her current position as United States senator from New York, she has also been very supportive of the Abyssinian Baptist Church's development work in Harlem," said Rev. Calvin Butts in his endorsement of Clinton in mid-January.

Critics believe Clinton has used earmarks as a strategy to win support in the minority and gay communities. They said Bill and Hillary Clinton have been pooling their resources to win financing for her presidential campaign and his financial interests.

"The Clintons don't care if there are divides," said conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who has been studying records from the Clinton White House years. "Whoever gets in their way will be destroyed, one way or the other. That's the game plan.  It's been part of the playbook.  It always has been."

The watchdog group Council for Citizens Against Government Waste determined that Hillary Clinton had the most earmarks of any presidential candidate. The organization said Clinton has been virtually alone among major candidates not to outline her position on earmarks.

"Taxpayers now know where Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. John McCain, and Gov. Mitt Romney stand on earmarks," said CCAGW President Tom Schatz said. "The other candidates should issue their own statements, as wasteful spending is a key concern across the country. Citizens deserve to know what kind of commitments the candidates are making and how they would address earmarks as president of the United States."

The Heritage Foundation has examined Clinton's role in the fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill. The foundation said Clinton inserted 261 earmarks in the bill, nearly five times more than any other presidential candidate. Sen. Barack Obama inserted 46 earmarks and Sen. John McCain did not place any earmarks.

Most of Clinton's earmarks were aimed at winning support among minorities and gays. Clinton directed $303,000 to the Gay Men's Health Clinic, which lobbies to allow immigrants with HIV/AIDS to legally enter the United States.

A month before the October 2007 earmark, the clinic and its attorney donated about $1,000 to the Clinton campaign. Clinton has sought to increase support among Hispanic voters to counterbalance Barack Obama's skyrocketing popularity among blacks.

Many of the 261 earmarks were inserted by Clinton after receiving donations from the institutions. They included the New School for Research, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Phoenix House.

CCAGW said its survey was meant to determine the real positions of the presidential candidates on earmarks. The group has been lobbying for an executive order that bans earmarks.

Critics said Hillary and Bill have been helping each other with political influence and financing since the 1980s. They cited Hillary's membership from 1986 to 1992 on the board of directors of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and a sworn opponent of labor unions. Wal-Mart has contributed at least $25,000 to Clinton's campaigns.

The Clintons’ influence-peddling was expected to be included in the thousands of records of the former first lady, protected in the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas. Amid a lawsuit by the Washington-based Judicial Watch, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has sought to process 10,000 pages of Hillary’s correspondence. But the decision to release the logs rests with the former president.

"NARA confirms that the Clinton Presidential Library is on track to adhere to the schedule represented to the Court in NARA's December 3 filing and at the December 17 hearing, and estimates that it will complete processing the daily schedule records by January 31, 2008 and will notify Presidential representatives shortly thereafter," wrote Justice Department attorney Helen Hong in a Jan. 28 letter to Judicial Watch.

GOP strategists said the concealment of Hillary's documents as first lady marked a strategy by her campaign against efforts to disclose her role in the Clinton White House. Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan expected that the Obama campaign would uncover enough dirt on Clinton for use in the elections.

"I'm not sure that anyone at this point has been thoroughly vetted," said Duncan, referring to Hillary's claim that her record is known. "Are there more arguments to come? Yes."