The American Pundit

Surprise, surprise. Despite Obama declaring that “my party” wouldn’t accept contributions from federally-registered lobbyists, the senator’s campaign has accepted the donations of at least 40.

Lobbyists might be persona non grata on the presidential campaign trail, but that hasn’t put them off of donating to the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).

Obama has pledged to forgo contributions from federally registered lobbyists. Yet, more than 40 have donated nearly $15,000 to his presidential campaign this year, according to records recently filed with the Senate and House.

The latest tally, as of Tuesday, comes as lobbyists have begun filing their LD-203 forms, a requirement of the Honest Government and Open Leadership Act of 2007. The provision requires lobbyists and all lobbying organizations to file forms to the Senate and House by July 30 and Jan. 30 that list ties to political action committees, federal campaign contributions over $200 and expenditures for events that honor officials covered by the law.

Team Obama is claiming that it will refund donations from lobbyists, but says it relies on them to be open and honest at the time of their contribution. As Ed Morrissey asks, if lobbyists are expected to be open and honest, what’s the objection in the first place?

So what’s happened with the money so far? Roll Call says Obama’s publicly saying No, but they keep receiving fundraising requests from the campaign.

Despite those measures, only two of the 42 federally registered contributing lobbyists, David Taylor of Weil Gotshal & Manges and Kyle Danish of Van Ness Feldman, reported on their forms that the Obama campaign had refunded their money.

Others say that since their initial donation, they’ve received several fundraising requests.

“I sent a small check,” said Victor Kamber, a lobbyist at Carmen Group Inc. who gave Obama $200 after he had maxed out to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign. “Since then I’ve been heavily inundated.”

Kamber, who is registered to lobby on behalf of Washington Hospital Center and MedStar Health, says he hasn’t received a refund from Obama.

Maybe the campaign wouldn’t have to refund the lobbyist money when their contributions are exposed, if it didn’t keep asking federally-registered lobbyists for more money.