Washington.- Vice President Kamala Harris’ top campaign fundraisers are being treated to glitz and glamour over the four days of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — hotel packages at the Ritz-Carlon and Four Seasons, a visit to Wrigley Field and for the really important ones, perhaps a private moment with the presidential nominee.
But unlike other recent Democratic conventions, the public won’t know who those top fundraisers are.
Roughly a month before voting begins in some states, the American electorate will have less knowledge about the people helping 2024 presidential candidates raise money than in any election 20 years ago.
That’s because for the first time in modern presidential fundraising, neither the Democratic nor the Republican nominee has released the names of those individuals, who amass large financial contributions to presidential campaigns and, in the eyes of transparency advocates, wield significant power in presidential campaigns and administrations.
The law does not require that their names be disclosed.
That modern process began in 2000, when President George W. Bush professionalized campaign fundraising with a nickname-based program that called some big-money raisers Rangers and others Pioneers.
Presidential nominees have made the names of those people known in some way every cycle since then.
Republican nominees did it in 2004 and 2008, Mitt Romney, a private equity executive who was very sensitive to concerns that he was too close to the wealthy, didn’t do it in 2012.
Former President Donald J. Trump did not disclose those individuals during the 2016 and 2020 campaigns and has not done so this year.
Harris’ campaign has not released their names so far, nor did President Biden’s campaign before withdrawing from the race.
Campaigns could reveal these contributors in the final weeks of the campaign.
But advocates for greater government transparency are seeing a worrying trend that is setting a precedent.
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