Bundling
Bundling refers to the legal practice of combining several small individual campaign contributions into one large contribution. Lobbyists for a business or organization, for instance, might collect contributions from employees or association members and present those checks to a candidate at the same time.[1]
Background
Although the act of bundling had been practiced for years, it wasn't until the 2000 presidential primary race that it became more organized, when presidential candidate George W. Bush opted out of the federal public financing system. Bush's campaign, for instance, gave special recognition to individuals who gathered bundles of $1,000 contributions totaling $100,000 or more. In 2002, with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as "McCain-Feingold", which prohibited corporate and union expenditures on electioneering communications, bundling became an increasingly popular method of campaign fundraising.[2]
By 2008, candidates "Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney all opted out of the system during the primaries as well." Presidential campaigns that opted out became entirely dependent on private donations to fund their activities; however, campaigns that opted out of public financing were no longer required to abide by the spending limits attached to public funding.[3]
Despite the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision that overturned the section of McCain-Feingold banning corporate and union expenditures, the use of bundling has continued to increase. In 2012, 769 bundlers directed over $186 million to the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.[4]
Reporting requirements
The Federal Election Commission requires candidate and party committees to report when they receive bundled checks from a lobbyist if there are two or more checks that, in total, exceed the "reporting threshold" for a reporting period. That threshold is annually indexed for inflation by the FEC. For 2015, the reporting threshold is $17,600.[5]
Recent news
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See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Frontline, "A Citizen's Guide," accessed June 10, 2015
- ↑ The Wall Street Journal, "Donor Bundling Emerges As Major Ill in '08 Race," October 18, 2007
- ↑ OpenSecrets, "Will 2012 Be the End of the Presidential Public Financing System?" August 5, 2011
- ↑ Open Secrets, "Barack Obama's Bundlers," accessed June 10, 2015
- ↑ Federal Elections Commission, "FAQ on Lobbyist Bundling," accessed June 10, 2015