Shell Lobbyist is Top McCain Donor

US Presidential candidate Senator John McCain has released an updated list of his top donors. It reveals that nearly a fifth of those who have brought in the largest amounts for him, more than $500,000 each, are lobbyists or work for firms that engage in lobbying.

One of those listed is a top oil lobbyist and Republican-insider, Jack Oliver III. Oliver, who is Chairman of Bryan Cave Strategies, was a strategist for Bush-Cheney ’04, and Bush for President.

In 2003, Time magazine called Oliver “Bush’s Brigadier of Bucks” when he managed the president’s $240 million re-election finance plan. Time called him “the man largely responsible for what is being heralded as the most formidable money machine in modern political history.” He is also a former deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee.

As well as being a Republican fund-raiser, Oliver is also a top oil lobbyist. According to the OpenSecrets database, Bryan Cave was paid some $190,000 last year to lobby on Shell’s behalf, with Oliver one of the account holders.

As politics and oil inter-mix once again, isn’t it time to Separate Oil and State in this election?