Bundling

The practice of an intermediary gathering together separate campaign contributions for delivery to a specific candidate is known as bundling. The technique enables a political action committee (PAC), individual, or party committee to stay within the campaign finance limits and still present a candidate with a gift large enough to gain his or her attention and possibly ensure access to the officeholder when the time comes to ask a favor.

Critics argue that because there are no limits on the overall amount that can be collected and passed on to a candidate, bundling essentially allows groups to circumvent the contribution limits imposed by Congress since the 1970s to lessen the influence of big money in [Page p33]campaigns for federal office. Moreover, they point out, the names of most intermediaries and the fact that checks were bundled do not have to be publicly disclosed, and in many cases they are not. But those who engage in bundling insist that they are operating within the law and that they are simply matching donors with like-minded candidates.

The use of bundling predated the current federal limits on campaign contributions. The Council for a Livable World (CLW) originated the technique in 1962 by soliciting checks payable to George S. McGovern's Senate campaign in South Dakota.

A variation on the bundling system is the “political donor network,” pioneered openly in 1985 as EMILY's List. The group (whose name is an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast—so-named because it helps the “dough” rise) was formed to raise early campaign money for pro-choice Democratic women candidates. Members contribute to the group itself and pledge to also contribute to at least two of its recommended candidates. The checks made out to the candidates are sent to EMILY's List, which then bundles them together and forwards them to the candidates. In the 1999–2000 election cycle, EMILY's List claimed its members contributed $9.3 million to recommended congressional and gubernatorial candidates.

Corporate executives also use bundling to aggregate their political contributions into larger sums. Under contribution limit revisions approved in 2002, corporate executives, like other individuals, may give no more than $4,000 to a single candidate ($2,000 per election, with the primary and general election counted as separate elections). But if ten executives each give $4,000, the $40,000 bundle would be four times the maximum amount ($10,000) that a PAC can contribute to any one candidate over two years.