Kerry fights cronyism charges in US Democratic race

OKLAHOMA CITY - Democratic Senator John Kerry yesterday rejected charges his votes in the United States Senate were influenced by campaign contributions, saying he had spent his whole career battling special interests.

Speaking to reporters after accepting the endorsement of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Kerry said he would put his record up against any of the Democratic candidates seeking the chance to run against President George W. Bush in November.

Michigan holds a primary on Saturday. Kerry is now making a seven-state campaign swing in advance of the Democratic contests on Wednesday (NZ time).

But the reports that he had accepted thousands of dollars in contributions from lobbyists dogged him through the day, which he began in Missouri before a boisterous rally, launching his own attack on Bush for allowing "lobbyists and special interests" to influence White House policy.

"I've spent a career fighting against special interests," Kerry said. "I'll take a second seat to nobody in this race with respect to my lifetime fights against special interests and my efforts to run campaigns on a high standard."

He said he had accepted no money from political action committees or "special interests" and that no vote of his was ever influenced by a campaign contribution.

"No one has even suggested that I've done other than to take them on," he said.

Kerry was responding to comments by his main rival, former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who was the front-runner in the Democratic race until Kerry won the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Dean said the four-term senator from Massachusetts was "a handmaiden of special interests" after the Washington Post and the New York Times reported that he had accepted more than US$600,000 ($907,500) in donations from lobbyists over the course of his 19 years in the United States Senate.

"It turns out we've got more than one Republican in the Democratic race," said Dean. "I've already said I thought [retired General] Wes Clark was a Republican and now apparently John Kerry has the same financing habits."

Referring to this remark, Kerry said the outspoken former governor had previously made comments for which he had had to apologise.

"I would respectfully suggest that that may be just one more of them."

The controversy at least temporarily interrupted Kerry's efforts to keep the debate focused on Bush, whom he earlier blasted for pandering to special interests and for a failed foreign policy.

In Kansas City, Missouri, Kerry said: "The only people that have contributed to my campaigns to the US Senate are individual Americans. Now are some of those individual Americans lobbyists? Yeah, sure.

"And if anybody in America thinks that a $1000 contribution against $14 million in a campaign is somehow going to sway my vote, there's a level of cynicism about this."

Kerry's stops yesterday were in states that are among the seven holding pivotal Democratic contests on Wednesday. Kerry is mounting a non-stop effort to score additional wins and cement his standing as front-runner.

The latest poll showed Kerry holding a 33-point lead in Missouri, the biggest prize on Wednesday with 74 delegates at stake.

- REUTERS