Posted Thursday, July 19, 2012 --- 9:00 a.m.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde campaigns against federal farm subsidies, his realty firm collected at least $8,000 from the government under a program benefiting tobacco farms.
Hovde is a hedge fund manager and also chief executive officer of Hovde Realty Inc. He is in a four-way race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. The primary is Aug. 14.
Hovde has been trying to position himself as a fiscal conservative and has taken a stance against farm subsidies.
But a government website that tracks where federal money is spent shows that between 2010 and 2012, Hovde's real estate firm was paid $7,989 under the Tobacco Transition Payment Program.
Hovde said Thursday that he didn't know his firm applied for the subsidies and he opposes them.
Copyright 2012. The Associated Press.