President Obama may state a public disdain for lobbyists, but his campaign coffers don’t match his rhetoric. The Center for Public Integrity finds bundlers for his campaign, whose names were just released, hail from the lobbyist field.
Examples: Executive Vice President of UnitedHealth Group Anthony Welters, the CPI reports. Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife Joan. Both were listed as donors of at least $500,000 to the Obama Victory Fund, CPI says. And another, Andy Sandler, chairman at the legal and lobbyist company BuckleySandler, donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to Mr. Obama’s campaign, CPI reports.
The donations aren’t illegal. But they do run counter to previous claims from Mr. Obama and his campaign to not take money from the lobbyist industry.
For instance, in December 2011, the Obama fundraising campaign put this message out, PolitiFact reported: “We don’t take a dime from D.C. lobbyists or special-interest PACs — never have and never will.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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