Joe Biden's having trouble sticking to the 2020 Democratic primary's purity test of turning down money from federal lobbyists.
The presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee in March received at least $8,400 from three lobbyists registered to influence the federal government, according to financial disclosure records.
Though the sum is overshadowed by the $46.7 million Biden raised last month and the fact that the lobbyists were legally allowed to donate, it still represents a pattern of accepting funds from the industry after pledging he wouldn't.
Biden's lobbyist donors from March include Richard Gephardt, president and CEO of Gephardt Government Affairs. Gephardt was House majority leader and House minority leader for more than 13 years and a Democratic presidential candidate in 1988 and 2004. Gephardt gave $2,800 and boasts clients in 2020 such as Ameren Services Company, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Intuit Inc., and Prairie State Generating Company.
Susan Mann, Microsoft Corporation's senior director of intellectual property policy, and Jennifer Dionne of Atlantic Strategies Group also contributed the maximum amount to Biden.
A Biden spokesman told the Washington Examiner that the campaign had returned the funds when asked for comment. Neither Dionne, Gephardt, nor Mann responded to inquiries.
Biden, the two-term vice president and Delaware's 36-year senator, promises on his website not to be financed by "lobbyists and corporate PACs," though the Democratic field generally narrowed the vow to apply only to federal lobbyists for the primary.
If elected to the White House, Biden would impose other restrictions on lobbyists, such as barring them "from making contributions to, and fundraising or bundling for, those who they lobby."
"Any lobbyist contribution must be disclosed within 24-hours, and any lobbyist-hosted fundraising event must be disclosed before it occurs," his website states.
Last September, Biden returned about $6,000 from six lobbyists working for industries such as Big Pharma and companies ranging from Google to Lockheed Martin. His team additionally gave back $5,750 donated by two lobbyists who registered shortly before giving to his campaign. Two of those contributions came from Gerard Evans and former Florida Rep. Lawrence Smith, both of whom have criminal records and spent time in federal prison.
