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Obama Allows Lobbyists To Work On Transition Team

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The Associated Press

Published: November 11, 2008

WASHINGTON - Aides to President-elect Obama, who said lobbyists would not work in his White House, said Tuesday that lobbyists could serve in his transition so long as their activities do not involve areas of policy they have tried to influence in the past year.

John Podesta, a top transition aide, said federal lobbyists will be prohibited from any lobbying while they are at work on the transition.

The transition office said in a statement, "if someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied."

Podesta called the guidelines the toughest ever imposed by a presidential transition. But they seem to give lobbyists more leeway than Obama suggested they would have when he campaigned for the presidency.

"I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race," Obama said in speech last November in Spartanburg, S.C. "I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House."

Podesta said federal lobbyists may not contribute financially to the transition.

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