Campaigns to Disclose More on BundlersSaturday 12 July 2008
by: Michael Luo, The New York Times
The presidential campaigns of Senators Barack Obama and John McCain moved Friday to disclose more information to the public about their top fund-raisers, after it was disclosed that they had been lax in identifying many of them.
Though not legally required, identifying elite fund-raisers who "bundle" millions of dollars in campaign contributions from acquaintances is a concern of watchdog groups devoted to promoting transparency and curbing the influence of money in politics.
In a bit of one-upmanship, the McCain organization issued a letter Friday to a group of campaign finance watchdogs announcing that it would begin publishing on its Web site the names of all its fund-raisers who bring in $50,000 or more, instead of the $100,000 and $250,000 thresholds it had used before.
The letter, signed by Rick Davis, the campaign's manager, also said this list of bundlers would identify their occupations and employers, in addition to their home cities and states, which are already provided. Watchdogs say employment information is crucial to acquiring a sense of what a fund-raiser's interests may be.
Mr. Davis said that from now on, the campaign would seek to update its list of bundlers monthly.
The Obama campaign, meanwhile, said it would begin furnishing on its Web site the cities and states of its bundlers. The campaign currently identifies by name the bundlers who raise more than $50,000, $100,000 and $200,000, but provides no other information.
The pledges to be more forthcoming with bundler information followed an article Friday in The New York Times detailing how both candidates had failed to abide by promises to disclose the identities of all their bundlers.
In addition, a group of eight watchdog groups sent letters last month to both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama asking for further details about the bundlers.
After The Times asked how complete their bundler list was, Obama campaign officials scrambled Thursday evening, adding 181 entries to their existing list of 328 fund-raisers who had each brought in more than $50,000. Previously, the campaign had added just two names to its list since November.
While the Obama campaign first posted a list of bundlers early last year, the McCain campaign did not release its list until April, despite promising early on to do so, and has added just one name to it since then. The campaign now says it will be updating its list in the next week.
Watchdog groups remain dissatisfied, pointing out, for example, that the campaigns' lists group bundlers by dollar threshold rather than being more specific about how much each has raised.
An examination of the new fund-raisers listed since Thursday on the Web site of Mr. Obama's campaign finds that some were not among his earliest top financial supporters. They include writers, Hollywood producers and hedge fund managers.
Many of them gave personal contributions early on to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. For example, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, a real estate executive from Northern California who hails from a family that has long been active in Democratic causes and stalwart supporters of the Clintons, gave the maximum contributions for the primaries and the general election, a combined $4,600, to Mrs. Clinton last December.
But in mid-February, Mr. Tsakopoulos announced that he was supporting Mr. Obama. In April, he helped organize a pair of fund-raisers for Mr. Obama and made a personal contribution of $2,300.
Though not legally required, identifying elite fund-raisers who "bundle" millions of dollars in campaign contributions from acquaintances is a concern of watchdog groups devoted to promoting transparency and curbing the influence of money in politics.
In a bit of one-upmanship, the McCain organization issued a letter Friday to a group of campaign finance watchdogs announcing that it would begin publishing on its Web site the names of all its fund-raisers who bring in $50,000 or more, instead of the $100,000 and $250,000 thresholds it had used before.
The letter, signed by Rick Davis, the campaign's manager, also said this list of bundlers would identify their occupations and employers, in addition to their home cities and states, which are already provided. Watchdogs say employment information is crucial to acquiring a sense of what a fund-raiser's interests may be.
Mr. Davis said that from now on, the campaign would seek to update its list of bundlers monthly.
The Obama campaign, meanwhile, said it would begin furnishing on its Web site the cities and states of its bundlers. The campaign currently identifies by name the bundlers who raise more than $50,000, $100,000 and $200,000, but provides no other information.
The pledges to be more forthcoming with bundler information followed an article Friday in The New York Times detailing how both candidates had failed to abide by promises to disclose the identities of all their bundlers.
In addition, a group of eight watchdog groups sent letters last month to both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama asking for further details about the bundlers.
After The Times asked how complete their bundler list was, Obama campaign officials scrambled Thursday evening, adding 181 entries to their existing list of 328 fund-raisers who had each brought in more than $50,000. Previously, the campaign had added just two names to its list since November.
While the Obama campaign first posted a list of bundlers early last year, the McCain campaign did not release its list until April, despite promising early on to do so, and has added just one name to it since then. The campaign now says it will be updating its list in the next week.
Watchdog groups remain dissatisfied, pointing out, for example, that the campaigns' lists group bundlers by dollar threshold rather than being more specific about how much each has raised.
An examination of the new fund-raisers listed since Thursday on the Web site of Mr. Obama's campaign finds that some were not among his earliest top financial supporters. They include writers, Hollywood producers and hedge fund managers.
Many of them gave personal contributions early on to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. For example, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, a real estate executive from Northern California who hails from a family that has long been active in Democratic causes and stalwart supporters of the Clintons, gave the maximum contributions for the primaries and the general election, a combined $4,600, to Mrs. Clinton last December.
But in mid-February, Mr. Tsakopoulos announced that he was supporting Mr. Obama. In April, he helped organize a pair of fund-raisers for Mr. Obama and made a personal contribution of $2,300.
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