[NYTr] 2008 Campaigns Overrun by Surge of Lobbyist-Fundraisers

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Public Citizen - Sep 6, 2007
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2504


Number of Lobbyist-Fundraisers for 
2008 Presidential Candidates on Pace to Eclipse 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C.– With more than a year left until the 2008 election,
presidential candidates already have signed up two-thirds as many
lobbyist-fundraisers as they did for the entire 2004 campaign season.

According to a study Public Citizen released today, candidates already
have signed up 92 federal lobbyists, compared to the 136 lobbyists who
raised money for 2004 candidates. And the candidates’ army of
lobbyist-fundraisers will likely grow because 70 percent of the 2004
lobbyist-fundraisers are still on the sidelines.

In-house, or salaried, lobbyists particularly appear to be holding back
until front-runners emerge. While dozens of in-house trade association
and corporate lobbyists signed up as fundraisers – mostly for Bush –
during the 2004 campaign, only four have signed up so far for the 2008
race, according to available information. Those who have signed up are
mainly from lobbying firms.

To better track candidates’ fundraising efforts, Public Citizen has
created a new feature on its Web site, www.WhiteHouseForSale.org, that
indicates whether each of the 2008 mega-fundraisers, often referred to
as bundlers, have registered as federal lobbyists at any time since
1998.

The subject of accepting lobbyists’ fundraising help has driven a wedge
between those Democratic front-runners who accept their help and those
who don’t. A recent Gallup poll found that fully three-quarters of
adults of voting age consider contributions from lobbyists to be
“unacceptable.” 

“It is stunning with so many serial fundraisers holding back that the
number of 2008 lobbyists is already approaching 2004 levels,” said
Laura MacCleery, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division.
“It’s just another sign that the unhealthy, symbiotic relationship that
binds politicians and lobbyists continues in force.”

Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton each have enlisted
more than twice as many lobbyist-fundraisers as any candidate in their
respective parties, according to information available. Clinton’s
showing was not a surprise given that her two top competitors, Barack
Obama and John Edwards, have policies of not accepting federal
lobbyists’ help, although a handful of their bundlers registered as
lobbyists in years past.

Getting details about efforts made by the lobbyist-fundraisers for
Republican candidates is more difficult than obtaining the same data
from Democratic candidates. Unlike Clinton and Obama, who provide some
information about how much their fundraisers have raked in, Republican
front-runners have thus far offered next to no such information.

Public Citizen’s study found that 10 of the bundler-lobbyists are
former members of Congress, including Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, a
McCain supporter; Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana, a Fred Thompson
supporter; and Rep. and Gov. James J. Blanchard (D-Mich.), a Clinton
supporter.