According to The Hill and the Washington Post Senator Hillary Clinton rightly defended the role of lobbyists during Saturday’s Presidential Leadership Forum at the YearlyKos Convention.
Senator Clinton noted that lobbyists "represent real interests, nurses, social workers…" She also asserts that "the idea that a contribution is going to influence my record" is not rooted in reality. CCP knows she is right. Research by professors John Lott and Stephen Bronars shows that campaign contributions are driven by ideology and do not buy legislative votes.
Clinton’s chief rivals, Barrack Obama and John Edwards, sharply criticized the role of lobbyists. John Edwards said he would "never take a dime from a Washington lobbyist." Obama said he "disagrees with the notion that lobbyists don’t have disproportionate influence."
In June, though, a Politico article highlighted the fact that both Obama and Edwards "have taken money from the broader lobbying community." In the article "Brad Smith, chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics, said both Edwards and Obama have made a calculation that the political mileage of not taking donations from lobbyists outweighs the cash they would take in."
Smith also called the distinction drawn by Obama and Edwards between registered lobbyists and others in the lobbying community "a little bit phony."
But there was nothing phony about Senator Clinton’s message: "Lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans."
