Thursday, June 05, 2008

Obama: DNC Will Not Take Money from Lobbyists or PAC's

Obama at a campaign event in Virginia today...

I've sent a strong signal in this campaign by refusing the contributions of registered federal lobbyists and PACs, and today, I'm announcing that going forward, the Democratic National Committee will uphold the same standard and won't take another dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. They do not fund my campaign. They will not fund our party. And they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I'm President of the United States.

4 comments:

benny06 said...

Yeah, and they had to wait for Hillary to concede on Saturday, when John Edwards asked for a pledge last summer...and Rezko got convicted today.

Anonymous said...

Better late then never. Of course that's what the word "change" means.

noneed4thneed said...

Obama wasn't in position to make this pledge last summer. If he did, he would have gotten some blowback from party insiders and big donors. He is in position to do it now that he has a donor list of over 1 million people and has raised over $250,000,000.

Anonymous said...

John McCain’s presidential campaign is being run by Washington lobbyists and paid for with their money. It’s hypocritical of John McCain to denounce the influence of lobbyists when his two closest aides—Charlie Black and Rick Davis— were top-tier lobbyists in Washington until just recently.

Rick Davis, his campaign manager, is on leave from his lobbying firm (managing partner of the very partisan Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc., a lobbying firm based in Arlington, Virginia). The current head of John McCain's Senate office in Washington, Mark Buse, spent six years lobbying pharmaceutical firms, telecoms, oil and gas interests, and other corporate clients.

Over the last month, several senior advisors and staff were fired or forced to resign from McCain’s presidential campaign due to lobbying efforts on behalf of foreign countries such as Burmese (military junta), Saudi Arabia and Nigeria (run by General Sani Abacha, a ruthless and corrupt dictator). Many current and former McCain staffers/lobbyist have practiced Washington's “business as usual” even as their boss was condemning it.

John McCain vows that, if he's elected, he'll change the revolving door culture in Washington. But if he can't do so in his own campaign or U.S. Senate office, how can he do so if elected president?