On Oct. 1, after a critical vote on a $700 billion financial industry bailout package, Sen. Arlen Specter issued a two-paragraph statement explaining why he "reluctantly" voted, along with 73 colleagues, for the measure.

Before the year was over, a Delaware-based bank holding company that counts the senator's wife as a nearly decade-long director got a $45.2 million infusion from the bill.

The financial firm was Bancorp Inc., with operations in Delaware and Pennsylvania. Joan Specter has been a director of the firm or its predecessors since 1999, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Asked Tuesday for comment, Specter spokeswoman Kate Kelly issued a brief statement denying that the senator had any role in securing money for the financial institution.