Evizda

An email exchange reviewed by Axios showed a top fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg offering a rich prospective donor access to the South Bend, Indiana mayor’s presidential campaign in return for donations, an overture critics described as a particularly blatant example of how big money corrupts the American political system.

H.K. Park—who, according to Buttigieg’s website, has raised at least $25,000 for the campaign—told a potential donor in a recent email that “[i]f you want to get on the campaign’s radar now before he is flooded with donations after winning Iowa and New Hampshire, you can use the link below for donations.”

“It’s rare that the public has an opportunity to see it in writing, but this is not the only campaign that’s offering big donors the opportunity to get on the radar of the candidate in exchange for large contributions.”
—Brendan Fischer, Campaign Legal Center

As Axios reported late Sunday, Park’s offer “was unusually blunt—even by modern pay-to-play standards.”

“Pretty brazen stuff,” tweeted The Intercept‘s Mehdi Hasan.

For campaign finance watchdogs and reform advocates, the email is indicative of the way in which wealthy donors buy access to and influence over presidential candidates—in this case, before a single vote has been cast.

Brendan Fischer, federal reform program director at the the Campaign Legal Center, told Axios that Park’s email “is an example of a campaign offering potential donors an opportunity to buy influence.”

“It’s rare that the public has an opportunity to see it in writing,” said Fischer, “but this is not the only campaign that’s offering big donors the opportunity to get on the radar of the candidate in exchange for large contributions.”

Even the prospective donor, who Axios did not name, expressed alarm about Park’s offer.

“It’s very telling and concerning that one of the campaign’s major bundlers would talk like that,” the individual told Axios. “What would this suggest about the way he’s going to interact with Silicon Valley if the implication is pay-for-play? If that’s the way he’s operating, it’s in the public interest for people to know what’s being said.”