Fundraising -- with no names attached

WASHINGTON — When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) laid out the financial goals for her budding presidential campaign in a private meeting at her Washington home earlier this week, a key element in her fundraising plan was a time-honored technique that relies on supporters who promise to round up big dollars -- in this case, as much as $1 million each.

Instead of going through the slow, expensive process of obtaining contributions one at a time, the technique -- known in fundraising parlance as "bundling" -- relies on well-connected individuals such as lobbyists and other insiders to canvass blocs of potential donors from businesses, unions and other groups. These canvassers then present the candidate with bundles of checks that add up to significant amounts.

Clinton is not alone in embracing the technique, which over the years has proved both lucrative and efficient. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and other Democratic hopefuls are using it too. So are Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, and most of his Republican rivals, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

But there's a potential problem as the candidates seek to raise tens of millions of dollars for their campaigns: Should they make public the names of their heavy-hitting money collectors -- and thereby reveal to whom they might be beholden if they win the White House?

Or should they try to avoid questions that could cause more problems -- especially considering that revelations of corruption and legislative favors for contributors became an issue in last year's congressional elections?

The candidates' responses have been mixed -- with each looking for an answer that reduces vulnerability without sacrificing money.

Obama, for example, about whom the public knows relatively little, is running as an idealistic candidate and has made a flat promise to disclose the names of bundlers and other top contributors. Clinton, the fundraising leader among Democrats, said she would comply with the law -- which appears to be silent on the subject of disclosing bundlers' names.

And McCain, who like Obama is cultivating an image as a reformer, said he would name his top fundraisers who agreed to meet certain dollar goals, but would not track whether they actually hit the targets. Officials in the Giuliani and Romney campaigns said they had not yet considered the disclosure issue.