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If you were wondering how Washington works, an ad from the Barack Obama campaign ostensibly offers a primer – A Guide to Understanding Washington Lobbyists — while it attacks Hillary Clinton.The Web-only ad outlines the following steps with on-screen text:Step 1: Lobbyists donate to politicians.Step 2: Politicians defend lobbyists.Step 3: Americans pay the price.As part of the first step, the ad states:Senator Hillary Clinton has taken over $800,000 from lobbyists, more money than any other candidate — Republican or Democrat:* Over $130,000 from energy lobbyists* Over $130,000 from drug company lobbyists* Over $125,000 from health care and insurance lobbyists.We asked the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which categorizes and analyzes political contributions, whether this text was accurate.The $800,000 number is correct. A recent analysis by the center showed Clinton has accepted $865,290 from lobbyists, based on data released on March 20, 2008.The threshold of contributions by industry the ad lists for Clinton is probably too low, said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the center.The center's analysis found the following amounts that lobbyists gave to Clinton:* Energy: $442,800* Pharmaceuticals/health products: $450,450* Hospitals, health services/HMOs and insurance companies: $552,050* Health professionals: $114,755.Based on these numbers, we find Obama's statement that Clinton has taken more than $800,000 from lobbyists to be True.
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