Reply #16: Obama and Lobbyist Money - Fact Check

[democrat_nanny]

Subject: Obama and Lobbyist Money - Fact Check
Message:
Barack Obama has been arguing for “transparancy” when it comes to disclosure of Federal lobbying. One main difference he has drawn attention to is his claim that he does not accept campaign contributions from Federal Lobbyists while Senator Clinton does. He has even used this claim as a fundraising tool telling his supporters on his website that:

“We don't take money from lobbyists or political action committees, and we're going to build a broad base of individual donors to ensure that this campaign answers to no one but the people.”

While Senator Clinton has been upfront about accepting and reporting all lobbyist contributions to her campaign, Senator Obama has hidden contributions to his campaign on a technicality by having the donations be made in the names of spouses or family members of federal lobbyists.

In the spirit of the “transparency” of which Senator Obama speaks, the following search at www.opensecrets.org turned up the following antidotal evidence from a law/lobbying firm headquartered in Denver, CO. The firm is called Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck.

As is the case for many federal lobbyists, they feel the need to “play all sides of the fence” by donating the maximum amount allowed to each candidate. This appears to be the case with the named partners Norman Brownstein and Steven Farber of this firm. However, while their contributions to all of the other major candidates were made in these lobbyists own names, those reported by Senator Obama’s campaign were made in the names of their wives and other family members. A few examples are below. If you’d like to look this information up on these or any other federal lobbyists you can go to the Open Secrets website and use this database http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.asp to find donations. I found the following contributions listed just by typing in the last names of Brownstein and Farber and verified the names of their spouses/relatives through a simple newspaper article search. I think it’s important to note that, while federal lobbyists aren’t usually the most admired members of the process, in this case they are being put in an unfair position by the Obama Campaign. Therefore this information is not meant to cast doubt on Brownstein and Farber as they are just doing what, no doubt, many other federal lobbyists have been asked to do.

Norman Brownstein’s wife:

BROWNSTEIN, HELEN RUTH MS
ENGLEWOOD,CO 80113
NOT EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER
3/21/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

Steve Farber's Wife and In-Laws
FARBER, CINDY
ENGLEWOOD,CO 80113
NOT EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER
3/21/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

LUSTIG, DEBBIE
ENGLEWOOD,CO 80110
NOT EMPLOYED/NOT EMPLOYED
3/21/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack


(Cindy Farber and Debbie and James Lustig show up in a Denver Post story as Steven Farber’s wife and in-laws)

***Please feel free to add individual examples to this list.

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