2024 presidential candidates need 'greater transparency' on big donors: watchdog

A group of watchdogs distributed a letter to 2024 presidential campaigns Tuesday asking candidates "to regularly and meaningfully release information about" their donors during the upcoming election cycle, Politico reports.

Per the report, over 12 campaign finance and government watchdog groups are requesting "greater transparency from almost every major presidential candidate about their campaigns' biggest fundraisers" — also called "campaign bundlers."

Politico reports:

Bundlers often raise truckloads of money for candidates, ranging anywhere from a couple hundred thousand to more than a million dollars, for which they might receive perks and access to candidates. For example, elite fundraisers who bundle more than $2.5 million in checks for the Biden reelect will earn four tickets to a 'special event' with Biden and Harris next summer, NBC News reported last month, while Trump will deem any bundler who raises $1 million for his campaign part of the 'Ultra MAGA program,' CNBC reported.

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Aside from President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump, the report notes that letters are "being sent to the campaigns of Republicans North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, radio host Larry Elder, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, businessperson Vivek Ramaswamy, businessperson Ryan Binkley, businessperson Perry Johnson and Sen. Tim Scott, independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Democrat Marianne Williamson. (The groups also put the letters in the mail, including to the campaign of former GOP Rep. Will Hurd, who dropped out of the race on Monday.)"

Politico adds, "The letter's signatories want campaigns to provide 'meaningful information about how much money each bundler has raised for your presidential campaign such as the exact aggregate amount they have raised to date, which can — and should — be regularly updated' over the course of the race."

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