Obama, lobbyists, and the DNC
Will the DNC repudiate Obama's core message?
By Soren Dayton Posted in Archived | Barack Obama | Democratic National Committee | Howard Dean — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Barack Obama and Howard Dean have been attacking John McCain for not being able to controlling the NC GOP. Let's see if Obama and Dean can control themselves.
Obama's central message has been the reform of Washington by not accepting money from lobbyists. But reports from USA Today makes clear that the message is a fraud:
Although Obama refuses direct campaign contributions from "Washington lobbyists," he takes money from lobbyists' spouses and holds fundraisers at the offices of law firms that lobby Congress. He won't touch money from PACs or lobbyists representing big oil and drug companies, but he happily accepts huge amounts of money from executives at those companies and many others. In fact, he's relying on two oil company executives to raise $50,000 apiece for his campaign.
This is old news, but it looks like Obama and Dean may have crossed a line. You see, the other day, they created a joint fundraising committee. So what?
The question for reporters will be this. Will Obama's first action as the de facto leader of his party will be to repudiate his fundamental message in the primary? See, here's the fundamental question. Will that committee take money from lobbyists? The DNC has made quite a lot of money of lobbyists, but let's see how bad this could be.
Read on.
According to OpenSecrets.org the various Democratic Committees have accepted $1,674,063 from lobbyists and $14,268,734 from law firms. The DNC itself has accepted $2,331,086 form lawyers and law firms. (note that the DNC only has $4m cash on hand, so this is not incidental)
Will Obama's go back to his old ways?
Obama doesn't accept campaign contributions from lobbyists or political action committees, but that's a change from his past practices. He accepted their donations until he launched his presidential campaign.