Obama says DNC won’t take money from lobbyists, PACs

WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama, campaigning on a platform of bringing change to Washington, announced today that the Democratic National Committee will no longer accept contributions from registered lobbyists or political action committees.

Seeking to underscore a contrast with Republican Sen. John McCain, whose campaign has suffered departures by several top advisors because of their ties to lobbying, Obama said that as the Democratic Party’s nominee he will make sure that “special interests” are not allowed to derail healthcare reform and other policies initiatives.

“We will not take a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs,” he said. “They will not fund our campaign, they will not run our party, they will not drown out the voices of the American people.”

Pledging to reform healthcare, Obama faulted McCain for a plan “to only take care of the healthy and the wealthy.” Obama said the McCain approach “won’t make healthcare affordable to hard-working Americans and could actually drive up costs.”

Obama also blamed drug and insurance companies for blocking healthcare reform, and said his policy of shunning lobbyist contributions will ensure that “this time must be different.”

In taking control of the DNC – a standard operating procedure for the party’s presidential standard-bearer – Obama cast a key vote of confidence in Chairman Howard Dean, who will stay in place. Many inside the Beltway have faulted Dean for the party’s weak fundraising and criticized his “50-state strategy” to build up the party in places where Democrats have not competed in years.

It is a ground-up approach similar to one Obama pursued to win the nomination; the aide he installed to help run the party day-to-day, Paul Tewes, was a key field organizer who directed Obama’s successful Iowa caucus campaign.

Obama appeared at a town hall meeting in Bristol, Va., with former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, now running for the Senate. Obama said he had had selected southwest Virginia as his first campaign stop since securing the delegates necessary to become his party’s nominee because the region is “an example of so much that is good about this country but so many people who have been forgotten by Washington.” Virginia, in recent years a reliable Republican state, could also be a battleground state in the general election.

Despite Obama’s concerted emphasis on a message of change, supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, a fixture of Washington politics, continued to press the case for her selection as Obama’s running mate.

“I really think from a political point of view, they need each other,” said Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), an early Clinton supporter. “She needs to maintain a momentum as a national leader, indeed international. And he can count the figures, where he won and where he didn’t win, and see that she could bring all of that in so that we should expect a landslide if they had this dream ticket.”

Rangel and the New York congressional delegation held a press conference to congratulate Clinton on her decision to endorse Obama. Many in the delegation had conveyed to Clinton the pressure they were getting from constituents to endorse Obama but felt compelled to stand by the New York senator until she decided to end her campaign.

“She is our fearless leader,” said Rangel, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “We are so proud of her … we laud her efforts in what she is about to do.”

Saying that Clinton would make “a fantastic partner in government,” Rangel said that whatever happens, “she is still a part of our great New York delegation [where there are] no glass ceilings on ambitions or accomplishments.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who will serve as chair of the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, said today that the vice presidential nod should be “the prerogative of the nominee.”

Pelosi had previously said that a joint ticket with Obama and Clinton was unlikely, as Clinton said during the campaign that McCain was more qualified as a commander in chief than Obama.