A coalition of 13 watchdog organizations is calling on former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris to publicly disclose their top bundler fundraisers, the Washington Examiner reported.
The group, which includes Issue One, Campaign Legal Center, and Common Cause, made the request in letters sent Thursday to both campaigns.
Bundlers are typically well-connected people capable of raising substantial campaign donations. Although federal law does not require candidates to disclose their bundlers unless they are registered lobbyists, many campaigns have historically shared this information voluntarily.
"Government accountability depends on transparency in our campaign finance system, including transparency about presidential campaign bundlers," the coalition wrote in their letters to Trump and Harris.
Recent trends indicate a move away from the practice of sharing bundler information. The watchdogs highlighted that in 2020, Joe Biden's campaign voluntarily disclosed details about his bundlers.
NBC News reported last year that the Biden-Harris campaign had multiple tiers of bundlers, with some receiving exclusive access and perks in exchange for their fundraising efforts.
The letter to Harris emphasized that it has been a bipartisan tradition for Democrats and Republicans to disclose the names of top bundlers.
"Presidents Joe Biden, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, along with other prominent candidates like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, all embraced the practice," the letter read, referencing Harris' participation in such disclosures during the 2020 election cycle.In the letter to Trump, the coalition pointed to reports indicating that the former president has organized seven different tiers of bundlers, some of whom have raised at least $1 million for his campaign.
"The public has the right to know who is trying to curry favor, access, and influence with the next president by raising significant sums of campaign cash," said Michael Beckel, the research director at Issue One.
He said voluntary disclosure of bundlers has been a "good-government guardrail" embraced by both major parties for over 25 years and warned that the refusal of both major candidates to disclose their bundlers could undermine trust in the government.
"It's concerning to see the nominees of both major parties backsliding on this simple transparency measure," he added.
The coalition also includes organizations such as Business for America, Public Citizen, and the League of Women Voters of the United States.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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