Barack Obama says he is "refusing contributions from PACs and Washington lobbyists" but that is only true in the very strictest sense of the word. He takes money from a range of special interests.
Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois, has made lobbying reform a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. He wants to ban gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers and establish a two-year window for staffers between their government work and lobbying jobs in the private sector. He talks about the need to change the culture in Washington.
"Our leaders have thrown open the doors of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play - a game played on a field that's no longer level, but rigged to always favor their own narrow agendas," he said in a June speech in Manchester, New Hampshire.
To change that, Obama says, his campaign accepts no money from Washington lobbyists or from Political Action Committees or PACs.
That's true, but in the narrowest interpretation of his pledge. He carefully specifies that his fundraising ban applies to those who are registered as lobbyists of the federal government. His campaign has returned $55,000 from registered federal lobbyists so far in 2007.
But Obama has left a few loopholes that allow him to fund his campaign much the way other candidates do -- with contributions from wealthy special interests. While railing against the "stranglehold that lobbyists and special interests have on our democracy," his campaign coffers are filled with money from people who work for corporations and law firms that lobby the federal government.
Some power players are not registered lobbyists, but advise their clients on how to talk to federal officials about policy issues.
For example, Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader, who endorsed Obama and contributed to his campaign, is a consultant -- not a registered lobbyist -- working with Alston & Bird, a business firm that earned nearly $7.1 million from lobbying in 2006. Obama has received tens of thousands of dollars from other partners in the same firm.
