by Damozel | Deb Cupples can follow up on this, but this article from Open Secrets makes it clear that the Obama campaign is holding back on providing full information about donors---though McCain has been more cooperative than Obama.
[T]he Center for Responsive Politics and seven other watchdog groups asked John McCain and Barack Obama to disclose more information to the public about two segments of their fundraising bases that account for a large share of the half a billion dollars they've already raised: their "bundlers" and their small donors. On July 11, John McCain's campaign responded to our request and made some improvements -- but stopped short of agreeing to some other key requests. Obama's campaign still hasn't responded to our June 25th letter -- and it's been over a month. (Open Secrets)
Deb has pointed out some of the issues surrounding Obama's campaign finance claims (links below). I've been annoyed myself by what I view as probable misrepresentation of his sources. I think it is highly likely that quite a lot of what he's getting is coming from people with industry ties---indeed, the media went through a brief phase of alleging this to be the case---and I think this is a point on which the public deserves information.
Vincent Rossmeier at Salon has more:
The report concluded that McCain has divulged much more information about his bundlers than Obama has. Unlike Obama, McCain has indicated bundler sums that have gone to joint committees and not directly to the campaign itself. As the Politico's Ben Smith points out, Obama's lack of openness on this issue provides "a way for somebody who wants to keep a low profile and raise a lot of money for the campaign to do so."
Neither campaign, however, has exactly set the political world on fire with its disclosure policies. Neither campaign provides precise figures for how much each donor and bundler have supplied nor the amount bundlers have raised for their respective political parties.
Bundlers are often tied to lobbyists. Both candidates have condemned the influence of lobbyists on the political process in the past, but a recent CNN article alleged that each campaign has taken money from lobbyists. The article goes on to point out that while Obama has acquired a great deal more from small individual donors than McCain has, Obama has also collected $52.2 million from bundlers. However, that number pales in comparison with the more than $75 million McCain has gathered from his top 500 fundraisers. (More)
Here are some previous posts on this subject:
A Different Angle on Obama's Campaign Finance Numbers
How Should One Read Obama's Campaign-Finance Statistics?Jon Stewart Has Fun with Obama's Seal and Campaign Funding
The Mainstream Press Addresses Obama's Questionable Claims of Independence from Special Interests
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