Reuters
May 19, 2008
A top adviser overseeing finances for Republican John McCain's presidential campaign has quit over his ties with lobbying, a campaign official said yesterday.
Former Texas Rep. Thomas Loeffler, a national finance co-chairman, is the fifth McCain adviser to step down amid concern over potential conflicts of interest among lobbyists in the campaign. McCain has made ethics and transparency a centerpiece of his campaign. Last week, he established a policy requiring advisers with lobbying ties to sever them or leave.
Newsweek magazine reported Loeffler's lobbying firm has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002 and millions more from other foreign and corporate interests, including a French aerospace firm seeking Pentagon contracts.
Campaigning in Oregon, Barack Obama said McCain "keeps on having problems with his top advisers being lobbyists."
The issue of lobbyists' connections to presidential campaigns flared last month with the departure of Mark Penn, a top adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign over his role as a lobbyist for Colombia.
Copyright Reuters.
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