By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Congressman William Lacy said he will continue to accept campaign contributions from Wal-Mart, despite criticizing the retailer for its labor practices.
The Democrat took part in a news conference Tuesday sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
Clay said Wal-Mart pays poverty wages and mistreats its workers. But he said he will not return the retailer's contributions to his campaign, and may even accept them again in the future.
"The name of the game is raising money," Clay said. "I have dues to pay to my Democratic Party, about $150,000 a year. So wherever I can get that money to pay those dues, I will take it."
Clay said there no conflict of interest in this case because he never voted in favor of legislation that would help Wal-Mart.
Since 2002, the company's political action committee has donated $7,000 to Clay's campaigns.