BUNDLING BECOMES MAJOR CORRUPT GAME OF CAMPAIGN

[Like other forms of bribes to politicians in the form of campaign contributions, bundling is legal but deeply corrupt. The danger in bundling is that the contributor feels forced to give because of a relationship with the bundler, the contributor may not exist at all, or the bundler secretly repays the contributor for the gift. Further, the bundler and his firm or clients are essentially using the bundled funds to buy favors from the candidate]

BRODY MULLINS, WALL STREET JOURNAL - The bundling of political donations once was an innocuous play in the game book of Washington political operatives. Now, the fund-raising practice has grown so widespread, and some of its practitioners so brazen, that bundling has become the chief source of abuse in the American campaign-finance system.

The strange case of Norman Hsu, the textile-importer-turned-fugitive who cobbled together $800,000 in contributions for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, is the tip of the iceberg. Candidates for offices from county commissioner to U.S. president are increasingly turning to bundlers -- individuals who ask friends, family and business associates for contributions to their candidate of choice -- to help bring in the tremendous amounts of cash now needed to wage political campaigns.

The number of bundlers working for presidential campaigns has nearly doubled since the last election, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from campaigns and watchdog groups. The volume of cash they funnel to individual campaigns, as a percentage of all money raised, has soared as well. Bundled donations account for more than one-quarter of presidential campaign contributions this year, up from 8% in the 2000 race.

Bundling is legal and has been around for years, but new forces have turned it into an election-season cornerstone. Campaign costs have surged, with each candidate's viability increasingly measured by their ability to raise cash. Recent finance reforms have closed old avenues for individuals to make big donations, making stars out of connected fund-raisers who can coax small donations from a broad network of names. Campaigns encourage ambitious bundling by rewarding top fund-raisers with perks, including access to candidates.

Knowledge about these bundlers is limited, however, because candidates aren't required to disclose information about them. While some campaigns honor bundlers by name on their Web sites or disclose the total number of bundlers working for them, others guard their identities.

In this high-pressure, low-disclosure environment, the practice has increasingly evolved into a method for disguising illegal donations. In several cases already this year, campaign bundlers have admitted to making contributions in the names of others to get around caps, or coercing employees to give. . .

Last month, Mr. Hsu was charged with surpassing the legal limits on his own contributions by secretly reimbursing others for the donations he bundled together. Wisconsin developer Dennis Troha has pled guilty for repaying others for their donations to both Democrats and Republicans. Last week, the former chairman of Miami-based engineering firm PBS&J Corp. pled guilty in federal court in Florida for crimes related to funneling $200,000 to $400,000 in illegal donations to congressional candidates from Florida to Alaska.

Bundlers raised at least $109 million for the presidential candidates during the first nine months of the 2008 campaign. . .

Bundlers acknowledge that many people raise cash for campaigns to advance their own agendas -- from influencing public policy decisions to gaining ambassadorships or positions in a new administration. . .

A Clinton fund-raising event earlier this year illustrates how campaign deadlines, and bundlers' desire to win favor, can mix. William Danielczyk, a Clinton fund-raiser who runs a northern Virginia private-equity fund, says he wanted to plan an event for Mrs. Clinton in April. "We were encouraged to do it in March," he says, so the funds would be reported under the campaign's first-quarter results. . .

Mr. Danielczyk and Mrs. Clinton agreed to schedule a fund-raiser for late March at the Clintons' Washington home. Campaign-finance reports show that in the days around the event, Mr. Danielczyk's employees and family members contributed more than $100,000 to the Clinton campaign.

Nearly half of the money came from individuals who are Republican voters, according to election records. One of those, Pamela Layton, said that she and her husband, who is the director of information technology at Mr. Danielczyk's private equity firm, were reimbursed for the $4,600 apiece they donated to Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Danielczyk denied that he reimbursed anyone for donations. After the reimbursement was reported last month by the Journal, the Clinton campaign returned the Laytons' donations and said it would contact all of the Danielczyk contributors to confirm that they had donated their own money.

WASHINGTON POST MCALLEN TX -During the first nine months of this year, Sen. Barack Obama raised just $2,086 for his presidential campaign from people who live in and around this border town of stucco bungalows and weed-covered farm lots, and most candidates raised even less. But Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, has already raised more than $640,000 here, and her campaign expects to collect even more.

Clinton's success in this unlikely setting is based almost entirely on her friendship with one man, McAllen developer Alonzo Cantu. A self-made millionaire who once picked grapes on the migratory farm labor circuit, Cantu persuaded more than 300 people in Hidalgo County, where the median household income in 2006 was $28,660, to write checks ranging from $500 to $2,300 to the senator from New York. . .

Because of his financial interests, Cantu's influence over potential donors is substantial. He has raised money from doctors who work at the hospital where he holds an ownership interest, from bankers who work at the bank he co-owns and from the scores of tradesmen who contract with his primary business, Cantu Construction and Development Co., one of the town's dominant residential and commercial builders. The Clinton donors included dozens who had never registered to vote, several who were Republicans and 10 who had previously made contributions to President Bush and former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R).

"When Alonzo comes through the door, you want to give to him," said Gerardo J. Reyna, Cantu's brother-in-law. Reyna owns McAllen Carpet & Interiors, a company that provides close to 90 percent of the floor coverings in Cantu-built homes and offices. "The last thing you want to do is get on Alonzo's bad side," he said with a smile. Reyna donated $1,000 to Clinton.