Shockingly (or not), I expect the vast majority of U.S. politicians would say that's exactly how they behave.
How much you believe them is probably a good proxy for how important you think campaign finance issues are.
How much you believe them is probably a good proxy for how important you think campaign finance issues are.
Except I've never once seen such a claim actually made by any politician. So at the very least it seems likely to stand out.
And as for how to believe them: "I intentionally have no access to the donor list, I have never seen the donor list, and if you tell me you've donated to my campaign I will have no particular reason to believe you, so don't bother".
Marco Rubio made a claim like that on Meet The Press two days ago.
> I intentionally have no access to the donor list
That would require doing away with the $50,000 per plate fundraising dinners.
I've seen it made by almost every politician I've seen questioned about the impact of particular donations, and most people defending campaign donations against proposals to regulate them more closely; and as a lifelong political junkie and Political Science major, those are things I've seen quite a lot of.