NY Times falsely reports that Obama took BP PAC money for 2008 campaign

Written by Jocelyn Fong

Published

The New York Times reported that “in the 2008 election cycle,” Barack Obama “took in $77,000” from BP “executives and its political action committee.” In fact, Obama received $71,051 in BP-linked donations in 2008, and all of that money came from BP employees, not from BP's PAC, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

NY Times: Obama “took in $77,000 from company executives and its political action committee” in 2008 election cycle

From a June 18 New York Times article:

Democrats continued to make use of Mr. Barton's apology to BP, using it to portray Republicans as beholden to big oil. Mr. Barton, the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, worked as a consultant to Atlantic Richfield Oil and Gas Company before being elected to Congress. He has long been one of the top beneficiaries of campaign donations from big energy companies, cornerstones of the Texas economy.

But in going after Republicans, the Democrats' attacks gloss over a more complicated picture.

The largest beneficiary of campaign donations from BP in the 2008 election cycle, for instance, was President Obama, who took in $77,000 from company executives and its political action committee. This year, Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas and chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee, leads all candidates with $286,000 in donations from oil and gas companies.

In fact, Obama received no BP PAC money for 2008 campaign

Obama received no PAC money from BP during his presidential campaign. Contrary to the Times' claim that Obama “took in $77,000” from BP “executives and its political action committee,” during “the 2008 election cycle,” Obama received $71,051 in BP-linked contributions during his presidential campaign, and $6,000 in 2004, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. All of the BP-linked money Obama received for his 2008 campaign came from BP employees, not from BP's PAC or from the company itself. A spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics confirmed that “the $71,051 that Obama received during the 2008 election cycle was entirely from BP employees.” The CRP spokesman also stated that “Obama did not accept contributions from political action committees, so none of this money is from BP's PAC.”

Donations from BP or its employees represent 0.01 percent of Obama's total fundraising. As Media Matters senior fellow Jamison Foser has noted, Obama has raised more than $799 million for his campaigns. The $77,051 he has received from BP's PAC and employees accounts for less than 0.01 percent of Obama's total campaign contributions.