New York Times Editorial -- September 5, 2007 The Candidates’ Tainted Money
The presidential candidates’ gross money marathon is leaving them increasingly open to shady backslappers securing privileged access with big bags of campaign cash on the barrelhead. Senator Hillary Clinton has been burned twice lately by so-called bundlers — aspiring power brokers who harvest large amounts of smaller donations and bundle them into irresistibly giant packages. One Clinton bundler turned out to have an outstanding arrest warrant for business fraud; the other has a history of tax liens, fraud charges and bankruptcy proceedings on two continents.
Other candidates in both parties have been similarly embarrassed. And no wonder, as an estimated 2,000 bundlers now work the major campaigns like maître d’s. Business executives pass the hat among underlings and family members for impressive scores. Trade and professional groups milk their memberships for big-ticket entry to the political circus.
For all their press releases promising watchfulness, the candidates have become increasingly addicted to bundlers. This is because Congress failed to update the public financing of campaigns, the alternative that worked well for the nation for three decades. Private fund-raising, deposed after the campaign corruption of Watergate, has retaken the throne, with the money hunt becoming more rampant as the campaign season lengthens. There is no process forcing disclosure of bundling so voters could better judge a candidate’s donors. Sensing the growing risk of scandal, the campaigns have offered only half-hearted swipes at disclosure.
A good solution has been proposed by Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, who would mandate disclosure by individuals who bundle from $10,000 on up the campaign food chain. This is part of a plan to revive the public financing option by adjusting the subsidies to keep pace with the private fund-raising boom. Senator Barack Obama is a co-sponsor, but other major (i.e. well-moneyed) candidates, including Senator Clinton, are hesitating, despite their vows to change Washington. It would be a tragedy if it takes another Watergate scandal to prod today’s candidates into demanding public financing as the antidote to the abusive power of bundlers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/opinion/05wed3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
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