by Jim Tankersley
Pledges have become quite the rage in politics over the last decade or so — Grover Norquist’s no-tax-increase pledge most famously — but usually it’s candidates who sign them. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards turned the tables this morning, unveiling a web site that asks voters and caucus-goers to pledge their allegiance to candidates who don’t take money from lobbyists or “special interest” political action committees.
The pledge, posted here, states its target as the “broken system in Washington that works for special interests and not us.” But politically, its target would seem to be a single person: Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who leads the Democratic presidential field in national polls.
Clinton, Edwards’ campaign notes frequently, accepts lobbyist and PAC money. Edwards never has. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the other leading Democratic presidential contender, accepted lobbyist and PAC donations in the past but hasn’t this campaign.
The Edwards camp says signing the pledge wouldn’t stop anyone from voting for Obama — or for Clinton, if she announced she was no longer taking lobbyist dollars. Of course, the pledge can’t actually stop anyone from voting for any candidate — it’s not written in blood — but announcing it brings some obvious strategic benefits for Edwards.
For starters, the pledge reinforces Edwards’ populist campaign themes that pit average Americans against powerful interests that have a “stranglehold” on the federal government, as one spokesman put it today.
“Lobbyists have taken control in Washington and America’s hard-working families pay the price,” the pledge website reads. “They’ve stopped universal health care. They’ve secured unfair and unsafe trade deals that have cost America good middle-class jobs. They’ve left our children at risk from unsafe toys. They’ve sabotaged clean energy legislation that would address global warming. And they’ve squashed efforts for cheaper generic prescription drugs. Enough is enough. America belongs to us.”
The site also asks people who sign the pledge to provide an e-mail address and zip code — handy data for campaign micro-targeters to have when they go to turn out voters this primary season. The campaign says it hopes to get 1 million people to sign on.