They say that in the presidential campaign of 1920 then-Senator Warren Harding campaigned without ever leaving his front porch.  A simpler time?  Perhaps, but the campaign also introduced the first-ever radio broadcast of a political ad and changed the nature of campaigning forever.

Today, a run for office takes enormous resources to pay, in large part, for the battle on the airwaves.  That means a candidate must have either personal wealth – think Michael Bloomberg’s potential independent run for the presidency – or access to a network of wealthy donors.  Candidates themselves spend far too much time dialing for dollars instead of talking to voters, but to successfully compete in today’s political environment one must enlist the help of “bundlers.”  These volunteer fundraisers tap their own lists of wealthy friends and significantly broaden the base of support upon which a candidate can rely.  The Internet may be an exciting new way to reach out to potential supporters, but the unfortunate reality is that the big money still requires the personal touch and no credible candidate can raise the necessary campaign cash without them.

According to a new website created by Public Citizen, whitehouseforsale.org, there are at this point in the presidential campaign more than 1,800 bundlers.  Dennis Kucinich and Sam Brownback may have dedicated supporters on the left and right flanks of the electorate, but with no bundlers the prospects of competing financially are remote.  On the other hand, Clinton, Obama, Romney and Giuliani collectively have 845 bundlers and far more in their campaign bank accounts. 

Bundlers to the Obama campaign are not recognized until they have raise at least $50,000.  The Clinton campaign has asked bundlers to raise $1 million.  Under current law, the names and fundraising totals of bundlers are not disclosed. The information on the whitehouseforsale.org website was gathered through voluntary disclosure and various press reports.  All that is required is for a campaign to disclose the individual contributions of donors which is limited to $2,300 per election.  This grossly understates the “contribution” bundlers make to a campaign and provides the public with an incomplete picture of who is building access through their fundraising activities.

As Congress considers lobby and ethics reform legislation in the coming week, they must include a strong provision to mandate the disclosure of bundlers.  As it stands, the new disclosure requirement will be limited to those who are federally registered lobbyists and not all bundlers for congressional campaigns.  The CEO of the American League of Lobbyists (yes, the lobbyists have an association that lobbies on their behalf) has said the organization will not fight the new disclosure rule but it should include all bundlers rather than single out one specific group.  

To ensure that there is a full and accurate public picture of campaign fundraising, the bundling provision must ensure that there are no loopholes in the definition of what constitutes “bundling” and that the information is easily and clearly accessible to the public.  One completely ineffective proposal required disclosure only of those who physically collected checks and personally handed them over to the campaign.  That would allow anyone who used the telephone and the postal service to evade disclosure.

Additionally, there must be explicit direction regarding who is covered by the disclosure requirement, the type of information to be made available and how it is to be displayed and accessed.  Congress must not pass legislation that is disclosure in name only – information that is collected and held by a public agency that is for all practical purposes inaccessible to the public.  The Internet is a powerful tool and should be used to its full benefit.

If Congress passes this landmark legislation it would open the door to a previously secretive world of campaign financing and access building that favors the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of the rest of us.  It would shine a light on practices that have, in the past, been done with a wink and a nod but are now tracked in campaign databases with the most successful players credited and rewarded.  Let’s hope they get it right.