Ethics

Anti-Lobbyist Pledge Makes Its Way to Washington DC
ABC News - 38 minutes ago
"I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race -- and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, ...
Obama team announces ethics policy The Miami Herald
The Transition Begins, Poorly Lit TIME
The Associated Press - AFP - MSNBC - Washington Post
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Comment by Craig Holman, Ph.D., Lobbyist, Public Citizen
Big Donors and the Obama Transition Team - 2 hours ago
Bundlers, those individuals who pool together large numbers of campaign contributions from a network of business associates in order to funnel far more money to campaigns than they could personally give under campaign finance laws, make up more than 10 percent of President-Elect Obama’s transition team. Together these six individuals, including transition team Co-Chair Valerie Jarrett and Advisory Board members Susan Rice, Michael Froman, Julius Genachowski, Federico Peña and Donald Gips have directed over $1.4 million to the Obama campaign.

Although their presence on the transition team may very well be coincidental to their bundling activities, it is cause for pause.

Under the Bush Administration, bundlers used their capacity at raising vast sums of money on behalf of their companies or clients to influence White House decisionmaking and administration appointments. Former Enron executive Kenneth Lay and convicted felon Jack Abramoff are two of the most egregious examples of Bush administration bundlers who peddled money for influence to the detriment of the American citizen. There exists little doubt that other bundlers managed to exert similar degrees of influence. Even if they may not have so thoroughly flouted the law, it does not mean that they exerted any less damage to the citizenry and to democracy.

While Obama’s commitment to cleaning up Washington is heartening, we cannot in our exuberance over a change in administration allow the actions of his transition team to go unvetted. Fortunately there are organizations committed to ensuring that transparency exists in the transition process. Public Citizen, for example, has launched www.becoming44.org as a resource for the press and public to hold the new administration accountable for the campaign’s promises to look out for ordinary people.

President-Elect Obama campaigned on a pledge of change, his transitional website is even titled www.change.gov. Now that the campaign is over, however, our responsibility as engaged citizens does not end. It is our job to make sure the new administration follows through with its message of hope and change.