Watchdog groups are urging 2024 presidential candidates to disclose their top campaign fundraisers, which are known as “bundlers,” according to a letter.
While presidential campaigns can accept maximum contributions of $6,600 per person each election cycle, bundlers, who are typically wealthy and well-connected people, are permitted to tap into their lucrative networks and solicit large cash transfers to aligned candidates, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets website. Ahead of the 2023 year-end campaign finance filing deadline, a coalition of watchdogs signed an open letter this week requesting that committees for White House hopefuls “implement a system to regularly and meaningfully release” the identities of their bundlers, asserting that doing so is in the name of “transparency.”
“Bundlers frequently raise vast sums of money for candidates, often hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars, which may help them ingratiate themselves — and curry favor — with those candidates,” the watchdogs, which included the left-leaning Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Public Citizen, and RepresentUs, wrote in the letter. “Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, campaign bundlers have received plum postings, such as ambassadorships and positions on commissions.”
The coalition, which also included the conservative National Legal and Policy Center, said in the letter that campaigns should disclose details about their bundlers “in tandem with the upcoming campaign finance reporting deadline with the Federal Election Commission — and continue to disclose this information in connection with any and all future FEC reporting deadlines throughout the entire 2024 election cycle.”
The FEC deadline is Jan. 31.
News of the open letter comes as the 2024 race is likely headed toward a general election rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who won comfortably in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) dropped out of the primary race on Sunday after failing to gain traction, endorsing Trump and bashing former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who is still vying for the GOP nomination, as offering “a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism” that represents the “old Republican guard.”
Under current law, candidates have no obligation to report their largest campaign fundraisers unless those fundraisers are federal lobbyists. That said, campaigns on both sides of the aisle have disclosed bundlers over the years, including failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and failed 2008 Republican nominee John McCain.
Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released a portion of their bundlers. The 2024 Biden campaign apparently has at least four tiers for bundlers who are receiving certain benefits in return, NBC News reported in September last year. Sources familiar with the matter told Axios this month that the White House Counsel office warned Biden last year to stop bringing major donors to the Oval Office due to possible legal concerns.
Meanwhile, in early January, Puck News reported that Trump’s campaign has at least seven bundler committees. Some bundlers for Trump include real estate developer Steve Wynn, businessman Ike Perlmutter, and investor Steve Witkoff, a longtime friend of the former president, the outlet reported.
Biden’s bundlers in 2020 included Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-Obama administration officials, John Rogers of Ariel Investments, hedge fund manager Orin Kramer, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Democratic Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and other wealthy liberals, CNN reported.
“Such disclosures should make it easy for the public and the press to identify the individuals who are raising large sums of money for your presidential campaign, including their city, state, and ZIP code of residence as well as their employer and occupation — details that all campaigns are already required to report to the FEC for their campaign donors,” the watchdogs, which also included the nonpartisan Project On Government Oversight, wrote in the letter.
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“These disclosures should also provide meaningful information about how much money each bundler has raised for your presidential campaign, such as the exact aggregate amount they have raised to date, which can — and should — be regularly updated over the course of your campaign,” the coalition continued in the letter.
The Trump and Biden campaigns did not return requests for comment.
