At least 21 people of Indian descent are on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s list of elite tax collectors who contribute more than $ 100,000 to his campaign coffers.
The list of 820 volunteers on the $ 100K + list released by the campaign on Saturday showed that Indian-Americans made up 2.5 percent, more than double the community share of the nation’s population, reflecting his deep involvement in American politics as well. their status as an ethnic group with higher income.
President Donald Trump has not released a similar list of top tax collectors.
Overall, Trump had raised $ 1.57 billion last month, having started before Biden, whose gross was $ 1.51 billion.
But Biden’s opinion has overtaken Trump’s in recent months. In the first half of October, his collection was more than double that of Trump, from 167 million to 82 million dollars.
In the 2016 election, then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s tally stood at $ 1.2 billion, double Trump’s $ 600 million.
Biden’s list included prominent activists such as Ajay Bhutoria, Swadesh Chatterjee, Frank Islam, Neil Makhija, Shekhar Narasimhan, M. Rangaswami, and Pramila Jayapal.
Many of the Indian-Americans on the list are entrepreneurs in technology and related fields.
Biden’s campaign did not say how much the volunteers had collected.
Under US law, a person can contribute a maximum of just $ 2,800 directly to a candidate, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The people on the list collected the legal limit on contributions from friends, family, acquaintances and associates and grouped them together before sending them and are therefore known as “groupers” in political parlance.
They collect contributions at fundraising events they organize with the candidate or other VIPs or by calling for funds.
This allows them to increase their influence or cause well beyond the $ 2,800 to which they are limited as individuals.
Campaigns have to report all contributions they receive to the FEC, which makes them public.
Transparency helps the public and watchdog groups monitor who contributes to campaigns and if there are conflicts of interest.
The list includes at least two others who may be of Indian descent.
Bhutoria, a California businessman, said he had held a fundraiser with Biden’s wife, Jill, in March.
He produced the campaign video, “Chale Chaolo, Biden, Harris ko vote do”, based on a song from the Hindi hit movie “Laagan.”
Makhija is the CEO of the Indian American Impact Fund, an advocacy and political action group, which said it had raised $ 10 million in three months to support Indian American and Asian American candidates running for public office.
Narasimhan is the co-chair of the Indo-American Council of the Democratic National Committee and executive director of the American Asian Pacific Islands (AAPI) Victoria Fund supporting ethnic candidates.
Rangaswami is the founder of Indiaspora, an organization to promote Indian-American activism.
Chatteerjee, a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, has served as chair of the American Indian Forum for Political Education and has been involved in community efforts to achieve the India-US nuclear deal during the term of President George W. Bush.
Islam is an activist in part who established the Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman Foundation.
Jayapal, a member of the House of Representatives, is very critical of India and made headlines when in a meeting the Minister of Foreign Affairs, S. Jaishankar, canceled a meeting with the House Foreign Affairs Committee when she was included in it despite not to be your member.
Vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris was caught up in the controversy by criticizing Jaishankar and questioning her right to choose who she wants to meet with.
Others on the list include Bela Bajaria, Shailen Bhatt, Swadesh Chatterjee, Shefali Razdan Duggal, Kiran Jain, Sonny Kalsi, Ramesh Kapur, Deven Parekh, Satya Patel, Rahul Prakash, Deepak D. Raj, Erik Ramanathan, Radhika Shah, Raj Shah, Rajan Shah, Jill and Raj Singh, and Nidhi Thakar.
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