Today Campaign Money Watch, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group, released the following statement from its director, David Donnelly, on the nomination of Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) to be Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) vice presidential running mate:  

“There are encouraging signs than an Obama-Biden White House would fight for the changes that are needed to fix a broken campaign finance system,” Donnelly said. “Joe Biden has called for ‘total public financing’ as recently as 2006, is a cosponsor of a bill to fix the presidential public financing system, and has supported legislation to create a system of public financing for congressional candidates in the past.  

“However, that doesn’t mean Sen. Biden’s nomination doesn’t raise concerns, particularly ones regarding his leadership role on the 2005 bankruptcy bill, which is the textbook case of how money influences public policy. Sen. Biden himself has received significant support from the credit card industry,” Donnelly continued.  

According to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Biden has received $297,150 from finance and credit companies and $275,825 from commercial banks since 1989. His biggest donor has been Delaware-based MBNA Corp., the credit card giant now owned by Bank of America, which has given him $214,050 in donations.  

Campaign Money Watch is a project of the nonpartisan Public Campaign Action Fund. The organization works to hold politicians who are against comprehensive campaign finance reform accountable for where they get their political donations.