Obama transition team heavy with big fundraisers
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama says moneyed interests won't have an inside track in his White House, but six of the 15 people he named to his transition team are top fundraisers.
They include Julius Genachowski, a former technology and news media executive and an Obama classmate at Harvard Law who raised more than $500,000 for the campaign, and Federico Peña, a two-time Cabinet secretary in the Clinton administration who is a managing partner in a global investment firm. He collected more than $50,000.
Campaign watchdog experts, such as Craig Holman of Public Citizen, say the close involvement of these big fundraisers — known as bundlers because they collect money from friends, family and business associates — could give them undue sway in the new administration. "The whole point of these bundlers bringing in so much money is that they get to exercise influence in the next administration," Holman said. Obama's pledge to clean up Washington "is encouraging," Holman said. "But this is a warning sign."
Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said transition members "were chosen based on their skills, ability and expertise."
In an interview, Peña said there is "no connection" between his fundraising and service on the transition team.
"The people who are in the transition process are people that (Obama) has great confidence in and who bring different talents and experiences to this effort," he said. "If some of them happen to also be involved in fundraising, that's simply a coincidence."
The new president will have to walk a fine line to avoid potential conflicts of interest as he fills key positions, said David Lewis, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and author of The Politics of Presidential Appointments.
"The campaign mobilized a tremendous number of donors and campaign workers and volunteers," he said. "Some of those people did it for the joy of participating in the political process, but many of those people participated … with the expectation they were going to get something."
