Earlier this week I got an article from Roll Call emailed to me on contributions to presidentail candidates titled, "No money, no problem". The article was about Barack Obama's campaign refusing to take contributions from PAC and registered federal lobbyist.
Among the qualifications for acceptable donations listed on Obama’s Web site are that the funds are not from a PAC. A donor also must certify that, "This contribution is not made from the funds of an individual registered as a federal lobbyist or a foreign agent, or an entity that is a federally registered lobbying firm or foreign agent."
Although PACs are heavily regulated by the FEC and are limited to $5,000 per election, its contribution is perceived as influencing policy-making decisions. PACs are formed by interest groups to contribute to politicians who are friendly to their causes.
One of my first jobs was working as a PAC Coordinator in Washington, DC for a corporation that contributed its PAC funds to business friendly candidates. Every day my In-box was filled with invites to fund-raisers from candidates running for office. And since I was well trained on who "we like" by the Government Affairs Director, I will shift through them really fast -- I will throw out the ones who were not "business friendly" in the recycled bin and put aside the ones from our "friends" for the weekly meeting with the lobbyist. In the weekly meeting with the lobbyist, they'll discuss which ones we should go to and then I prepared a check and a form letter for the candidate. It was not pretty to throw away fund-raising request of candidates I would have voted for, if I could, and writing checks for candidates I would never have voted for, if I could. That was how PAC worked -- we support those who support us.
In this '08 race the only candidates that refused to take PAC money are Barack Obama and John Edwards. The Republicans and Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden are not refusing PAC contributions.
Any penny-pinching lobbyists looking to save a few thousand dollars in the sure-to-break-records 2008 presidential race have the perfect candidate to throw their theoretical support behind: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
Not only has Obama’s presidential exploratory committee said it will refuse all donations from political action committees, but it also is barring cash from registered federal lobbyists. Word has just started to spread among K Street’s Democrats that when it comes to the candidate’s coffers, they’re off the hook.
"Thank, God," quipped one prominent Democratic lobbyist who does not publicly support any candidate. "Now I’m for him."
Another well-known K Street Democrat, one who publicly supports another candidate in the party’s primary field, echoed those sentiments, saying lobbyists are high-fiving the move.
"Most people are happy about it," this lobbyist said. "Some people are going to get hit up by multiple candidates, but not by Barack."
This lobbyist said Obama can likely succeed in raising the $50 million he’ll need to be competitive in early primaries through online donations and grass-roots support from beyond the Beltway, other Democratic contenders such as Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Joseph Biden (Del.) would find that banning lobbyists’ contributions "could potentially affect their ability to remain competitive" since both have large donor networks in the advocacy world.
The party’s frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will cash lobbyists’ campaign donations, too. But former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) won’t. An aide with the Edwards campaign confirmed that Edwards wants nothing to do with the money of PACs or federally-registered lobbyists.
Thank you Senator Obama and Senator Edwards for saying "No" to PACs. My $25.00 contribution is on its way to both of you.