For a candidate who has railed against lobbyist money, likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama has chosen an interesting running mate.

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported that Obama’s pick for vice president, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., took more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from credit card company MBNA during his 35-year career in the U.S. Senate.

So when many consumers are hurting and bankruptcies are at an all-time high, will Biden’s attachments to big business hurt the Obama campaign? 

Probably not, both Republican and Democratic donors said.

“You’re not going to see it on talking points at the Republican convention" or in advertisements, said Marc Nuttle, a GOP strategist. “But it will come up, I can assure you that.”

Republican and Democratic strategists agree that Biden’s foreign policy experience and middle-class roots likely outweigh his Washington insider status.

Kevin Orr, a bankruptcy lawyer and Democratic donor, said he doesn't see a conflict of interest between Biden’s lobbyist history and Obama’s message of change.

Still, consumer advocates may take a harsh view of Biden’s vote in favor of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. The law was the first major re-write of the bankruptcy code in over 30 years, and, according to critics, made it harder and more expensive for lower and middle-class consumers to file for bankruptcy.

Biden may have reason to regret that vote.

Robert Lawless, a bankruptcy law professor at the University of Illinois-Champaign, said Biden and other legislators apparently viewed that bill "as a 'free vote' to benefit their corporate constituencies. Now most people think that law was a disaster and that vote is coming back to haunt them, especially with this ongoing consumer credit crisis."

The credit card and banking lobby, including Biden-donor MBNA, pumped millions of dollars into Congress over 10 years to help get approval of that bill. Biden voted for it, while Obama was one of the 25 senators who voted against it.

“There were a lot of Congressmen and women who voted for this bill that champion themselves as consumer middle class,” Lawless said. “The law has now become the poster child for campaign finance reform.”

Lawless said the biggest problem with the law was the hurdles it created for consumers who seek to file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

But Democrats don’t hold Biden’s “yea” vote or the campaign contributions against him, now that he’s Obama’s running mate.

“Most people on the progressive side realize that Senator Biden represents the State of Delaware,” Orr said. “His constituents include several significant corporation and credit grantors. It comes with his job.”

Delaware is considered a popular place for large businesses to charter their legal entities because of its business-friendly laws. The state is home to companies such as Capital One (COF), DuPont (DD) and Bank of America (BAC).

Lawless said the political implications of Biden’s vote will be minimal because Obama is expected to revisit the law if he was elected. Secondly, another U.S. Senator who voted in favor of the bill was Arizona Sen. John McCain.

“Politically, if you’re concerned about this issue, you have a vice presidential candidate who has a poor record on it and presidential candidate on it with a poor record,” he said.