Obama's No-Money-From-Lobbyists Policy? Democratic Party Says Fuggedaboutit

The Democratic National Committee is reversing its Obama-era ban on fundraising from lobbyists and political action committees – at least when it comes to building a massive war chest for its 2016 convention and in taking in cash raised by primary candidates for joint fundraising accounts.

The change, announced Thursday, brings the party's fundraising policies back in line with its practices in most cycles before Barack Obama became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008, a campaign in which he contrasted his refusal to take lobbyist money with Hillary Clinton's position. When he bested Clinton in the race for the nomination, Obama aligned the DNC's fundraising rules with his campaign's, barring lobbyists and PACs from giving to the party's accounts, including the 2008 and 2012 conventions.