Issa Calls on White House to Detail All Efforts to Manipulate Elections

Candidate-Obama, January 26, 2008, After Winning the South Carolina Democratic Primary: “We are up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election. We know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics; this is why people don’t believe what their leaders say anymore; this is why they tune out. And this election is our chance to give the American people a reason to believe again.”

WASHINGTON. D.C. – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today sent a letter to White House Counsel Robert Bauer requesting the White House provide a “full and complete list of all elections in which the White House engaged in efforts to persuade specific candidates to drop election bids and if a job or any other thing of value meant to entice a candidate to withdraw from or not to enter the race was offered, [to] specify to whom it was offered, and by whom it was offered” as well as all “written commitment to preserve all records and communications related to any attempts by the White House to clear the field in Democratic primary elections.”

“The American people should not have to rely on candidates and party leaders who have been on the wrong end of inappropriate and unlawful job offers to disclose those offers months after the fact,” Issa wrote. “Instead, the White House should honor the President’s commitment to making his Administration the most open and transparent in history by cataloging and self-reporting any primary election upon which it attempted to exert influence. As such, I respectfully urge you to disclose any and all attempts to clear the field for Democratic candidates preferred by the Administration.”

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