As we've discussed interest groups seek to obtain benefits for some concentrated or diffuse set of recipients. While lobbying for some benefit, the act of wielding influencing can reap a negative harvest for other parties too. This issue came up in a Feb. 8th article in The Politico which reported on the Democrats' plan to attack McCain. In addition to pointing out flip-flopping, one other potential tactic mentioned was to point out McCain's connects to interest group. One example was about his staff's relationship to the influence business:
But his opponent could note that McCain's campaign is being led by Tom Loeffler, whose lobbying firm has made millions inserting earmarks into spending bills.
The article also pointed out that McCain fought for $10 million for the University of Arizona. Public universities are an example of another kind of interest group. For McCain being so anti-lobbyist perhaps these run-ins with interest groups will be slightly more problematic than they would have been otherwise.
See article
here.
2 comments:
Good luck trying to make that one stick.
I can see the McCain campaign's reaction now:
"Senator McCain will not apologize for trying to secure better educations and better futures for deserving American students working hard to make better lives for themselves and the next generation. Additionally, Senator McCain is disgusted by any attempt by the Obama campaign to politicize and belittle the critical task of educating America's youth."
Oh I definitely don't think it'll be all that politically damaging. I was just pointing out that the issue of Interest Group arose in the Politico's analysis.
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