By Malia Rulon
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - When it's time to divvy up the money for home-state projects, a vote against drilling for oil in an Alaskan wildlife refuge threatens to haunt Sen. Mike DeWine.

The opposition votes from several Republicans, including DeWine of Ohio, came after the head of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee threatened senators who opposed drilling.

"In the time I have served here, many people have made commitments to me, and I have never broken a commitment in my life. I make this commitment: People who vote against this today are voting against me, and I will not forget it," said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

The Senate voted 52-48 to remove the drilling provision from the $2.2 trillion budget resolution that the Senate was considering this week. DeWine was one of eight Republicans who bucked political pressure and their own party to vote against the bill.

Development of the millions of barrels of oil beneath the 100-mile coastal plain of the refuge in northeast Alaska isn't an issue that directly affects many Ohioans. But if Stevens holds to his threat, he has the power to affect projects in Ohio, such as after-school programs and sewer improvement projects.

As chairman of the Senate spending committee, Stevens has considerable control over which local programs and projects get money. A spokeswoman from his office said Friday that Stevens' comment speaks for itself and declined to say if it was directed at DeWine.

DeWine, who is also on the committee, said Friday he didn't think the threat was aimed at him and that he has a good working relationship with Stevens.

"He and I have talked about the issue in the past," he said. "This is an issue where reasonable people can disagree."

This year, DeWine gained clout on the appropriations panel when he was named chairman of the subcommittee on the District of Columbia, which controls funding for the nation's capital city. With two years on the committee, DeWine remains the Republican with the least seniority.

He voted in favor of arctic drilling in 1995 and 2000 but changed his mind last year and voted against the plan because he didn't think drilling for the oil was worth the risk to the environment. This time, DeWine faced intense lobbying by pro-drilling senators and the White House in the hours leading to the vote.

Senate Republicans and the Bush administration had hoped that the GOP majority in the Senate, combined with the war in Iraq and rising gas prices, would ensure the bill's passage.

Ohio Sen. George Voinovich has spoken in favor of the drilling plan and voted in favor of it.