Subject: [big campaign] Watchdog Group to McCain: Fire the Lobbyists
From: David Donnelly <[email-masked]>
To: big campaign <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 11:41:00 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Press Release from Campaign Money Watch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   CONTACT
Monday, May 12, 2008        David Miller, Communications Manager, (202)
448-6154

Reform Watchdog Group To McCain: Fire The Lobbyists
National campaign finance reform group calls on McCain to fire Charlie
Black, Tom Loeffler and Peter Madigan, three top lobbyists connected to
human rights abusers

Washington, DC  Campaign Money Watch called on Senator John McCain (R-AZ)
today to fire three Washington lobbyists working on his campaign team whose
lobbying clients include brutal foreign interests and big oil companies. The
demand comes after a weekend that saw key figures in McCain¹s campaign
resign for lobbying for Myanmar¹s military junta.

The two McCain lobbyists who resigned were just two of at least 10 top
McCain aides or fundraisers who have lobbied for foreign governments,
including at least 6 regimes or rulers with a history of human rights
abuses, and at least one rebel leader with a history of human rights abuses.

³John McCain¹s campaign is overrun by lobbyists and the worst abusers of the
pay-to-play campaign finance system,² said David Donnelly, Campaign Money
Watch¹s director. ³McCain¹s reform credentials are gone. While two lobbyists
have left, at least 112 lobbyists who are raising money for his campaign or
staffing it remain. If he wants to restore his image he ought to take this
initial step to fire these lobbyists today.²

The lobbyists singled out by the reform group are:

* Charlie Black, whose lobbying firm represented human rights abusers like
Philipines President Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire dictator Mobuto Sese Seko,
Somalia¹s Mohamed Siad Barre and Nigeria¹s Ibrahim Babangida, as well as
foreign oil interests like the Chinese government¹s CNOOC. Black currently
serves McCain as a spokesman and senior counsel;

* Tom Loeffler, whose firm has made more than $10 million since 2006 for
lobbying for the Saudi Arabian monarchy and oil interests. Loeffler serves
as McCain¹s national finance chairman; and

* Peter Madigan, a lobbyist whose firm received $800,000 to represent the
United Arab Emirates in a class action suit over allegations that boys are
enslaved and forced to be camel jockeys. He is also is a former lobbyist for
Shell Oil. Madigan serves as a top fundraiser for McCain.

The demand to fire the lobbyists comes as McCain gives a speech on
environmental policy today. Oil and gas interests have donated $780,662 in
campaign contributions to McCain¹s candidate and leadership committees over
his career, according to a Campaign Money Watch analysis of campaign finance
data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

³At a time when America needs to restore its image around the world,
McCain¹s reliance on lobbyists who represent human rights abusers is
unconscionable,² continued Donnelly. ³Adding insult to injury, while he
makes an environmental speech today, voters ought to look at how he has been
cozying up to big oil lobbyists and donors. That¹s why we are calling on
McCain to fire lobbyists Black, Loeffler, and Madigan.²

Campaign Money Watch is a national campaign finance watchdog that works to
hold politicians accountable for opposing comprehensive reform and doing
favors for big money contributors. Campaign Money Watch is a project of the
nonpartisan Public Campaign Action Fund.

###

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