Bundling

The gathering together of individual campaign contributions is known as bundling. The technique enables a political action committee (PAC) or party committee to stay within the campaign finance laws and still present a candidate with a gift large enough to gain his or her attention and possibly ensure access to the officeholder.

Bundling is just one of several methods developed by businesses, interest groups, and others to circumvent the contribution limits imposed by Congress since the 1970s to lessen the influence of big money in campaigns for federal office. In the wake of the passage of the campaign finance law known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BRCA) of 2002, the most common of these other avenues has been the practice known as independent expenditure, in which political parties and interest groups may use regulated hard money contributions to abet a candidate's election as long as those expenditures are made without the candidate's prior knowledge or cooperation.

Another common practice over the years has been the use of soft money or unregulated donations to parties for use on campaign activities. Provisions of BCRA barred the use of soft money in campaigns for federal offices (it is still permitted in some state-level campaigns). In response, there was a major expansion in the use of political action committees exempt from Federal Election Committee regulation because they are set up under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code and thus could accept soft-money contributions from interest groups and individuals who previously poured those funds into the national party organizations. (See 527 political organizations.)

The use of bundling predated the current federal limits on campaign contributions. The liberal-oriented 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 in 1985 as EMILY's List—its name an acronym from the phrase “Early Money Is Like Yeast—it makes dough rise.” The group was formed to provide financial resources to abet the election chances of Democratic female candidates who favored abortion rights. EMILY's List has been the largest single PAC in terms of receipts over the past several election cycles, including 2005–2006, when the group reported more than $34 million in contributions. In February 2007 the organization indicated that it had raised more than $240 million since its founding.

Corporate executives use bundling to aggregate their political contributions into larger sums. Like other individuals, they face strict limits on how much money they may give to an individual candidate. This was set for many years at $1,000 per candidate per election—with the primary and general election contests in each election cycle deemed separate elections—but the limit was raised to $2,000 with the enactment of BCRA. An inflation-adjustment clause boosted the figure to $2,500 for the 2011–2012 cycle. (See table, page 56.)

Even with the increase, an individual contribution would not necessarily draw the candidate's attention. But if ten executives each gave $2,300, the $23,000 bundle would make more of an impression. In fact, that amount is more than double the maximum amount ($10,000) that a political action committee may contribute to any one candidate over two years, even under BCRA.

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