Jack Abramoff was a bundler. So was Norman Hsu.

And they're both unsavory characters whose noses have wound up in Montana politics.

Campaign-finance laws limit the amount of money individuals and political action committees can donate to candidates.

Bundlers provide a kind of outsourcing for fundraising. They gather together "bundles" of individual and PAC contributions for candidates.

The major bundlers become big political players, and are often awarded access and plum appointments from successful candidates.

This week Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., returned $4,750 in campaign donations tied to Hsu, whose fundraising is being investigated by the FBI. None of the money was donated to Tester directly from Hsu.

Most of Hsu's fundraising was on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She returned all of the $850,000 Hsu has helped raise for her after newspapers reported his questionable fundraising tactics and legal history.

He was apparently on the lam, having not shown up for a grand theft sentencing more than a decade before.

The disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, of course, was a familiar name in Montana politics during last year's elections.

Tester, and many others, criticized then Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., for accepting $150,000 from Abramoff and his associates and clients. Burns eventually returned or donated the money.

The circumstances surrounding Hsu and Abramoff are apples and oranges.

But both clearly demonstrate the need for campaign-finance reform that addresses bundling donations.

Candidates rightly say they can't keep track of everyone who donates to their campaigns. But their campaigns should.

Most campaigns aren't required to disclose who is making bundled donations or where those donations come from unless the bundler gives the money directly to the campaign.

That's a requirement that's easy to avoid, and it shouldn't be so easy to keep the public in the dark.

Earlier this year, the House passed a measure that would strengthen disclosure requirements for lobbyists who bundle donations.

They would report bundles for federal candidates, PACs, campaigns and political parties, along with a good-faith estimate of how much the bundles contained.

That would be a good start, but the goal should be full disclosure from all bundlers -- not just lobbyists.