It seems the same Dallas, Tex., businessman spearheading the project, Cappy McGarr, was also a significant fundraiser for President Barack Obama in 2008. McGarr also gave Sowers $4,800 for his campaign in the Eighth Congressional District to unseat U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. McGarr's wife, Janie Strauss McGarr, also shows up on Sower's contributor list as a $2,000 donor.

In his statement, Voss noted that much of the $200,000 Sowers has been able to raise so far comes from outside the district. And he also takes note of Sowers's recent foray to New York in search of donations at a fundraiser that included several members of the cast of Saturday Night Live.

Then Voss turns to the McGarr connection:

"Perhaps the most troubling donor though is Cappy McGarr, a longtime political activist and Dallas based financial "bundler" for Barrack Obama's Presidential campaign. Cappy has used his position of influence with the U.S. Renewable Energy Group to lay claim to stimulus funds. What have our hard-earned tax dollars, given away by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Obama Administration gotten us? Cappy McGarr sent his stimulus money to China to buy turbines we could have made here in the U.S.

"I'm sure Cappy supports Tommy Sowers because they would both rather America chase a future in wind energy than invest in real, affordable resources like oil, natural gas, clean coal and biofuels that create American jobs. That's their choice. But to make China the beneficiary of American tax dollars is just plain wrong, and yet another reason why the "stimulus" stinks. News organizations from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch have slammed the deal, but Tommy and Cappy are undeterred.

"Tommy Sowers can keep the SNL funny money, and I am sure he will savor whatever crumbs executives on Wall Street toss his direction. But the real Tommy Sowers' character has been revealed from his associations with people like Cappy McGarr, who are taking stimulus money and shipping it to China. These are folks who take advantage of hardworking Americans for their own selfish gain, and they have no place representing our good congressional district. That position, Tommy, is already quite capably filled."

McGarr's project was announced in late October. It is a $1.5 billion project that uses about $500 million in federal stimulus funds with the rest coming from China to build a 600 megawatt wind farm in West Texas.

The project has come under fire from several points, including those noted by Voss and Democratic U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.

The reason? There aren't enough U.S. factories making wind turbines and while the project McGarr is pushing would create approximately 2,330 jobs, 2,000 of those jobs are in China, with another 300 being temporary construction jobs.

Stung by the criticism, McGarr's company, U.S. Renewable Energy Group, and A-Power, the Chinese turbine company, announced plans to build a wind turbine plant in Texas.

Voss, who has generally been a quiet chairman, said he intends to become more involved in campaign give-and-take. And while he said he discussed his plans to issue the statement with the Emerson campaign, he was pushed to act by what he sees as a waste of stimulus funds.

"I am opposed to the stimulus and to see it squandered or wasted like this makes me mad," Voss said. "A candidate for Congress knowingly taking campaign contributions from a guy doing this is just wrong."

UPDATE: The Sowers campaign responded that Voss is engaging in "desperate attacks" on behalf of Emerson to distract voters. Jonathan Feifs, Sowers's campaign manager, said in a prepared statement that Emerson is responsible for sending jobs overseas and has accepted "millions of dollars in special interest contributions."

"The people of Southeastern Missouri have gotten poorer and poorer on Emerson's watch, and all her camp seems to be interested in are trumped-up attacks on the individuals that support Tommy Sowers's campaign," Feifs wrote.