House hopeful Bryan Smith has a real beef with the spending choices Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, has made in the past, including some taxpayer funds he voted to send halfway across the country for seafood development.

During an interview conducted here at CQ Roll Call — watch more of the Q&A here — Smith laundry-listed what he believes to be some of Simpson’s greatest misses, harking back to the $188,000 that Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe (since retired) and Susan Collins tucked into the appropriations pipeline half a decade ago.

The watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste squealed about the funds funneled to the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute in its “Congressional Pig Book” for 2008.