Democrats Roll Out Celebrities at DNC in Hopes of Closing Fundraising Gap

ELECTIONS -- September 5, 2012 at 3:44 PM EDT

Democrats Roll Out Celebrities at DNC in Hopes of Closing Fundraising Gap

With the meteoric rise of super PACS and the repeal of some individual and corporate restrictions on presidential and congressional fundraising, outside money is pouring into this year's presidential campaign from every angle.

The NewsHour followed Keenan Steiner and Liz Bartolomeo of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. that advocates for government transparency, last week in Tampa Bay as they party-crashed several events and tried to get a taste of how Republicans were shaking the campaign coffers.

This week we followed the pair again as they looked for opportunities to peak behind the left's money curtain at the DNC in Charlotte. We spoke with Steiner and Bartolomeo about how Democrats have been using the lure of celebrities in an effort to combat Republican advantages in attracting outside campaign cash.

Ashley Judd, will.i.am, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and James Taylor have all participated in fundraising events for the Democrats this week. Kal Penn addressed the convention on Tuesday night and Eva Longoria will speak on Thursday.

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.