Campaign Thorns: Obama's NH Lobbyist Vs. Clinton's Lead Paint Spokeswoman
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During Saturday night's Democratic debate at Saint Anslem's College in Manchester, New Hampshire, Sen. Barack Obama was criticized by his rival Sen. Hillary Clinton for having a registered lobbyist as his New Hampshire co-chair even as he denounced the lobbying industry.
The exchange demonstrates that even on the Democratic side - where talk of ethics reform is a stump speech staple - no one is 100 percent pure.
"Candidates can't vet every single person who has any contact with the campaign," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington. "That's why we have seen a lot of problems already. It's clear that this will be happening over and over. Campaigns get involved with a lot of people some of whom will have issues."
Indeed, the Huffington Post has learned that a key Iowa campaign figure for Hillary Clinton served previously as one of the chief spokespersons for the lead paint industry.
Towards the end of her Iowa effort, Clinton turned to an old acquaintance to help argue her case to potential caucus voters. Bonnie Campbell, a former attorney general of Iowa and a leading voice on women's issues, stayed close to the Senator's side, even appearing on stage with Clinton during the night of the election.
Yet in 2006, Campbell represented several of the industry's top companies in arguing that property owners, not lead pigment manufactures, were responsible for keeping their properties free from lead paint hazards.
"Common sense also tells us that lawsuits against companies that made lead pigment used in paint long ago are not the way to protect children from lead hazards today," Campbell wrote, "those who rent unsafe houses to unsuspecting families need to be held accountable."
Of course, Clinton has other surrogates with professional backgrounds that have caused public relations headaches. Mark Penn, her chief strategist and pollster has a lengthy lobbying record for companies that have been accused of union busting.
For his part, Obama denied the claim that his campaign's New Hampshire co-chair was a lobbyist - "That's not so," he mouthed on camera - but the facts bore out otherwise. Jim Demers, who helps runs Obama's Granite State shop, heads the lobby firm of his own name, The Demers Group, and has advocated on behalf of several major pharmaceutical companies.
When presented with the evidence, the Obama camp said it had committed no foul because Demers lobbied only on the state level. "A ban on lobbying money and PACs is far from perfect," Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said. "There is a difference between a college football player and professional football player," he added.
Former Sen. John Edwards, too, has been plagued by his personal and fundraising ties to the hedge fund Fortress Investment. The North Carolina Democrat took a job there following his failed bid for president and vice president in 2004. Four years later, the Fortress connection persuaded Dennis Kucinich to urge his supporters to back Obama over Edwards in the Iowa caucus.
"It is hard to run any major political campaign without some lobbyists getting involved," said Massie Ritsch, spokesperson for the Center for Responsive Politics. "They are among the most politically active, politically motivated people on this earth. They are by nature political animals and extremely well connected."
But, as Ritsch notes, the issue of lobbyist connections to the campaign may prove thornier for Obama than for the other candidates. In addition to Demers, another Obama state co-chair, Jim Hodges in South Carolina, is a registered lobbyist (both instate and federal).
But mainly, it's because Obama's situation is different than his competition's. Unlike Campbell, Demers serves in a high-ranking role and remains a registered lobbyist within New Hampshire. And unlike Clinton, Obama has ascended to the top of the Democratic heap by positioning himself as someone who has battled lobbying interests throughout his career.
"Obama and [Sen.] John McCain are the two people most subject to that kind of criticism and Edwards is also in the anti-Washington anti-lobbying group," said Sloan. "And so they do have to be more careful. But by the same token everyone will have issues and it is a risky area to be throwing stones in because everyone lives in a glass house."
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First Posted: 03/28/08 03:45 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 01:20 PM ET