John McCain's national finance co-chairman has stepped down, becoming the latest adviser to leave the Republican's presidential campaign because of ties to lobbyists.
Former Texas Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, one of McCain's key fundraisers, resigned after the campaign last week instructed staff to disclose all lobbying ties and to make certain they are no longer registered as lobbyists or foreign agents.
McCain's campaign on Sunday confirmed Loeffler's resignation.
Loeffler lobbies for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which with Northrop Grumman Corp. won a lucrative contract to provide air refueling tankers for the Air Force. McCain helped scuttle an earlier contract that would have gone to a competitor, Boeing Co.
Newsweek reported over the weekend that 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."
Lobbying disclosure records also showed that on May 17, 2006, Loeffler listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to "discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations," even though Loeffler told a reporter last month that he had not discussed his clients with McCain, Newsweek said.
Past lobbying work does not automatically disqualify someone from working for McCain's campaign. But McCain, through the new policy, is seeking not only to comply with laws but also to live up to a higher standard to help burnish his image as a reformer of money in politics.
Loeffler is the latest McCain adviser to relinquish a formal role with the campaign.
McCain advisers Doug Goodyear, who was to run the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., and Doug Davenport, a regional campaign director for the Mid-Atlantic states, also resigned this month. Both worked for DCI Group, a consulting firm hired to improve the image of Myanmar's military junta.
When the policy was announced last Thursday, McCain fired energy policy adviser Eric Burgeson, who represents energy companies as a lobbyist.
The campaign also asked Craig Shirley to resign from McCain's Virginia leadership team because he was behind an independent group that has been criticizing Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama on the Internet. McCain's new policy also states that no one with a campaign title or position may participate in so-called 527 groups, which can raise unlimited amounts of money for television ads not controlled by campaigns.
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