Biden hires lobbyist to advise Senate run
WASHINGTON -- As Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama targets his Republican rival Sen. John McCain for hiring former lobbyists to work on his campaign, a key member of Obama's campaign is paying a Washington lobbyist for legal advice: his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden.
Lobbyist William Oldaker continues to represent the Delaware Democrat in his simultaneous bid for Senate re-election, serving as legal counsel just as he has for Biden's campaigns for the past 25 years.
Oldaker is an election law attorney and partners with Biden's son Hunter at the Washington firm, Oldaker, Biden & Belair. He is also an appropriations lobbyist who represents lawyers, American Indians, and educational and health care institutions and who drew fire in 2005 for serving on numerous fundraising committees that donate to the lawmakers he lobbies.
Connections to lobbyists have been a hot-button campaign issue, with McCain and Obama both pledging to fight the influence of special interests in the White House.
Obama's campaign launched a multimedia assault on McCain last weekend, with two television advertisements, a new website, www.mclobbyist.com, and a Web video highlighting the seven former lobbyists who serve as McCain's top advisers.
"Who do you think will run his White House?" the voice in the ad asks.
Asked whether Oldaker's connection to Biden was appropriate given the ad campaign, a campaign spokesman emphasized Oldaker's credentials as an election law attorney in a statement.
"Bill Oldaker is the former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission, and his law practice for well over a quarter of a century has included prominent Democrats from a speaker of the House, to Senator Ted Kennedy, and General Wesley Clark," said Biden's spokesman David Wade. "Bill is as highly regarded a election law attorney as you'll ever find, and his firm continues to represent Joe Biden's Senate campaign."
However, Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group, said the same standard for a presidential campaign should apply to a Senate campaign.
