新闻英语词汇: Bundling、 Bundler 捆绑捐助、政治筹款人_北京外宾旅游指南

新闻英语词汇 Journalism Vocabulary

美国大选候选人需要的竞选资金有一些来自于公民的捐款。美国人早就意识到操纵选举资金和财阀对国家权力的的危险，并试图通过颁布法律，对竞选筹款施加许多限制，以避免这一现象或阻止其恶化。

根据现行法律，普通人每年给每位候选人的补助金不超过2500美元，政治行动委员会给每位候选人的直接补助金不超过5000美元。在这样的法律框架下，富人很难通过捐款影响候选人和选举。事实上，候选人的大部分钱来自小选民。

在个人捐款中，也存在“捆绑捐助”（Bundling）现象。捆绑是指一个人从多个捐赠者或政治行动委员会筹集资金，绕过联邦选举委员会的规定，然后一次性将资金投入竞选活动。而这些从朋友和家人那里为候选人筹集资金的人被称为政治筹款人( Bundler)。

政治筹款人( Bundler）通常是公司的首席执行官、说客或某个富人。这类捐赠目前争议很大，但很容易解决法律对个人捐赠的限制。

“捆绑捐助”（Bundling）一直以各种形式存在，但在20世纪70年代，随着联邦一级和大多数州对竞选捐款作出限制，捆绑已变得更为重要。

Biden Ups Fundraising Goal for Bundlers

CNBC: “Biden and Democratic Party leaders are calling on their top bundlers to start raising over $2 million each.”

“The decision represents a massive jump in fundraising objectives for Biden’s top donors, who originally were called upon to help raise up to $100,000 at the start of his campaign last year. One of the people noted that since then, the most recent top fundraising goal was $500,000.”

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Welcome to the world of bundlers: a semi-secretive though perfectly legal practice in which super-duper fundraisers deliver bundles of campaign contributions to their favorite candidates that they induce, entice or, some would say, strong-arm others to make.

Bundling allows candidates of both parties to finesse the federal caps on individual political contributions and allows the bundlers to gain more-than-ordinary access to presidents and presidential hopefuls.” （ San Antonio News-Express）