“We don’t take a dime from D.C. lobbyists or special-interest PACs—never have and never will.” That’s from Obama’s latest fundraising email. And it’s also grossly misleading.
What would be true is this: We have a policy of refusing donations from individuals currently registered as federal lobbyists.
When Obama says he doesn’t accept money from “D.C. lobbyists,” the normal person would conclude that he doesn’t accept money from the CEOs of lobbying firms, or from VPs for Government Affairs, or from company executives that petition administration officials to change policy so as to help their company. But all of these types have given generously to Obama.
For instance, as I wrote in July:
Antoinette Bush is an alumnus of the Senate Commerce Committee, and today she works on “legislative matters” for legendary law-and-lobbying firm Skadden Arps. She’s not registered, and she’s a $35,800 Obama donor.
Some examples I blogged on back in October:
- He accepts donations from people who run lobbying firms, like Lawrence Rasky and Joseph Baerlein, of the lobbying firm Rasky Baerlein and Eugene Ludwig, who founded Promontory Financial Group.
- He accepts donations from individuals who lobby the administration on behalf of their company, but are not registered to lobby, such as Vint Cerf of Google.
- He accepts donations from recently deregistered lobbyists like Adam Golodner of Cisco.
- He accepts donations from corporate “public affairs managers” like Ginny Hunt of Google, or VPs for public affairs like Tom Epstein of Blue Shield of California, and from Senior VPs for “public policy development and corporate responsibility” like Kathy Brown of Verizon.
- He accepts donations from the spouses of registered lobbyists (who presumably share the same funds with the lobbyists) such as the spouses of lobbyists Susan Brophy and Andy Manatos.
- His bundlers include Sally Susman who runs the lobbying operation at drugmaker Pfizer, which benefitted handsomely from Obamacare.
