DNC to limit lobbyist influence at Obama's request

Barack Obama will announce today that the Democratic National Committee will no longer accept donations from federally registered lobbyists or political action committees, his campaign said this morning. No word yet on whether that applied at last night's $28,500-a-pop DNC fund-raiser at which Obama appeared in New York City.

The new limits expected to be announced would conform to Obama’s own self-imposed campaign finance standards, in which currently federally-registered lobbyists are out from contributing but state-registered lobbyists or the spouses of federal lobbyists or lawyers affiliated with firms with federal lobbyists still can give.

“The rules that have applied to the Obama campaign will now apply to the DNC,” said Obama campaign spokeswoman Linda Douglass. “Sen. Obama, now that he’s the nominee, will want to make sure to do everything he can to make sure the Democratic Party – the party he leads – will do everything it can to conform to his standards of transparency and openness, his commitment to ethics in government, and to reduce the influence of special interests.” Details to follow at an Obama appearance midday in Bristol, Va.

Comments

[cab91]

The new limits expected to be announced would conform to Obama’s own self-imposed campaign finance standards

Those standards were meaningless because, as you note, the spouses of federal lobbyists or lawyers affiliated with firms with federal lobbyists still can give.

I bet that ban excludes the in-house lobbyists who work solely for one company, union, trade association, or other group. Those contributions are usually grouped with the special interests they represent and Obama raised gobs of cash from them.

Obama appears squeaky clean but you always have to look for the loopholes.