White House for Sale?

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CRAIG HOLMAN
Holman is government ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, which has launched the web page White House for Sale that keeps tracks of money to candidates; they just updated their numbers Tuesday, below.

He said today: “The practice of bundling, which allows candidates to take unlimited unregulated cash pulled together from connected operatives, has rendered the public financing system impotent. Nearly all the ‘top tier’ candidates –except for Edwards — are forgoing the publicly funded system. That’s why we are well on our way to the first $1 billion dollar campaign. We won’t know who the vast majority of bundlers are unless the candidates voluntarily disclose. Obama, Clinton and Edwards are disclosing the names of the bundlers, but not the amounts, so we really don’t know how much they are indebted to various players. None of the Republican candidates who get money from bundlers are disclosing who those bundlers are — including John McCain, who had previously been associated so much with campaign finance reform.”

The breakdown of money and bundlers by candidate:

Obama: Total Raised: $78,915,507; Bundlers: 356; Lobbyist Bundlers: 9
Clinton: Total Raised: $78,507,181; Bundlers: 322; Lobbyist Bundlers: 18
Guiliani: Total Raised: $44,559,299; Bundlers: 218; Lobbyist Bundlers: 29
Romney: Total Raised: $43,999,833; Bundlers: 345; Lobbyist Bundlers: 13
McCain: Total Raised: $30,306,621; Bundlers: 442; Lobbyist Bundlers: 32
Edwards: Total Raised: $29,935,179; Bundlers: 665; Lobbyist Bundlers: 1
Thompson: Total Raised: $12,717,993; Bundlers: 113; Lobbyist Bundlers: 14
Paul: Total Raised: $8,200,347; Bundlers: 0; Lobbyist Bundlers: 0
Huckabee: Total Raised: $2,340,735; Bundlers: 7; Lobbyist Bundlers: 0
Kucinich: Total Raised: $2,118,294; Bundlers: 0; Lobbyist Bundlers: 0
Gravel: Total Raised: $306,279; Bundlers: 0; Lobbyist Bundlers: 0

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167


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