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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226458/site/newsweek/Hillary Clinton is likely to take more flak over the role D.C. lobbyists are playing in filling her campaign coffers. The Democratic front runner recently sought to dismiss the issue at the YearlyKos bloggers convention, defiantly refusing to forswear taking campaign cash from lobbyists (as Barack Obama and John Edwards have done) on the ground that "you know, a lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans."
That comment drew boos from the mostly liberal audience—and campaign rivals aren't likely to let the issue go away. An upcoming study by the watchdog group Public Citizen finds that at least 16 of her campaign's "Hill-raisers"—elite fund-raisers or "bundlers" who have pledged to bring in at least $100,000—are registered D.C. lobbyists who represent corporate interests that include financial, airline, defense and pharmaceutical firms. Among the players: Matthew Bernstein (whose client list includes Raytheon and Merrill Lynch), James Blanchard (Bristol-Myers and an Indian gaming tribe), Steve Ricchetti (Eli Lilly and General Motors), Richard Sullivan (Delta and Freddie Mac) and John Merrigan (Starwood Hotels). Figures compiled by another group, the Center for Responsive Politics, find Clinton has raised $668,250 from registered lobbyists and "government relations" officers—far more than any of the other presidential candidates, including the GOP contenders (who openly seek lobbyists' cash). The rap against Clinton, according to her opponents, is that she can't really change the culture of Washington when she is so beholden to lobbyists' cash. But Clinton-campaign spokesman Phil Singer says Clinton is committed to "real lobbying reform" and simply skipping lobbyists' donations "is not going to result in change." The Public Citizen study also found that, despite their campaigns' public disavowals, five top Obama bundlers had been registered lobbyists, and one of Edwards's major fund-raisers had run a lobbying firm. Both campaigns say none of these fund-raisers is currently registered to lobby.
The larger issue, according to the group, is that none of the presidential campaigns is fully disclosing the amounts that their top fund-raisers are bringing in—or even providing as much information about the levels they have raked in as the Bush-Cheney campaign did in 2004. "These bundlers are significant—and nobody is disclosing as much as they should," says Taylor Lincoln, the group's research director.
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