March 25, 2008 - As a non-profit organization, ACCESS cannot endorse any of the candidates running for President. Even so, we believe that it is important for our readers to know where each of the candidates stand on issues, and whether or not they are being completely honest. So from now until election time, we will be reporting on issues regarding each of the candidates that we think you should know about.

Over the past few weeks, the contest for the Democratic nomination has heated up and become considerably nastier. Both Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have been throwing mud at each other and hoping that some of it will stick.

At ACCESS our concern with all of the candidates is where they stand on issues having to do with credit, personal finances and privacy. So these are the items that we will cover.

Both Clinton and Obama have plans to deal with various economic issues. Both of them have been trying to promote their ideas through the press.

Over the past few days, Clinton has been promoting her plans to deal with the subprime mortgage crisis. As a part of her plan, she wants to establish an advisory commission to come up with a plan to help consumers. Obama's camp has countered that her plan sounds similar to one that he announced some time ago and that unlike Clinton, the American people need someone who is not influenced by lobbyists within the financial industry.

But ACCESS wonders is Obama is being completely honest about how he will treat lobbyists. While Obama has not taken any money from them in the presidential campaign, he didn't' shy away from special interest money when he was running for Senate.

According to data on OpenSecrets, Obama's top ten industry supporters include Securities & Investment, Real Estate, Miscellaneous Finance, Commercial Banks and Insurance. In the current election cycle, he is the number two recipient in the Senate for donations from Commercial Banks, Mortgage Bankers and Brokers and Savings and Loans. It should also be noted that in the current election cycle, he is the number one recipient of funds from the pharmaceutical industry. This probably means that nobody should expect him to do anything to dramatically cut the cost of prescription drugs if he wins the election.

It should be noted that Clinton has some of the same groups among the top twenty industries supporting her, but she has also been very clear that she will talk to lobbyists and take corporate money.

We just think our readers should keep this information in mind when they go to the polls in November.

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