Iowa Public Television

• 

  Program: Iowa Press #3510
  Broadcast Date: Nov. 9, 2007
  

• Collection: Iowa Press: The Presidential Candidates

• Visit the Web Site
• Program Information
• Tell Us What You Think
• E-mail a Friend

Sen. Barack Obama says he's not 'sinless' in fund-raising, but is working on ethics reforms. This interview took place on November 9, 2007, at Iowa Public Television.

www.iptv.org/campaign08/

Yepsen: You complain about money in politics a lot but yet -- and during your career you've taken money from people connected with various special interest groups. Why are you better on money issues than any of your opponents?

Obama: I've consistently said, David, that, you know, I'm not sinless in this process. You know, if you're in politics, particularly national politics, you've had to raise money. But if you look at my track record, not only do I not take federal registered lobbyist money and PAC money in this campaign, but I have consistently fought for and successfully achieved reforms in how we -- how we deal with money in politics.

The first piece of legislation -- major piece of legislation that I passed in the Illinois Senate was a campaign ethics reform bill, the first in 25 years. And that was resisted not just by Republicans but by some of my own Democratic leaders.

So I've got a track record of actually passing legislation that curbs the influence of money in politics, and that's simply not true for some of the other major candidates on the Democratic side.

Tags:

• Barack Obama
• campaign 2008
• politics
• Democrats
• campaign finance

Post Date: June 4, 2008