Useful Links

I thought I would include the Web site that allows you to search for campaign reports.

This Web site allows you to make campaign finance transaction inquiries.

Bev Perdue’s Plan for Clean Gubernatorial Elections…

As election day quickly approaches, I thought it was appropriate to reexamine the gubernatorial candidates’ stance on campaign financing.

Bev Perdue released a press release in February outlining her plan for “cleaner gubernatorial elections.” All other issues aside, she envisioned a couple key pieces of legislation and aims. But there was one that stuck out to me in particular.
All qualifying candidates will have to pledge that:

• Endowment candidates will not be able to contribute any of their own personal or family wealth. They will be able to raise and spend money from small private contributions in an overall amount equal to the total amount provided by the Endowment. This additional money will be used to cover other campaign expenses including grassroots field activities.

That is especially interesting considering how much of her own finances she accounts for, as mentioned in earlier posts.

Commentary on Financing Campaign Ads

I found this slightly dated but nevertheless relevant video about financing for campaign ads, an issue I tackled more in depth in an earlier post.

Barry Saunders, a News and Observer columnist, sounds off on the RGA spending for Rep. gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory.

Pat McCrory’s Finances Breakdown Part I

According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory has raised $2,650,654 based on 60% of disclosure reports collected. He trails democratic candidate Bev Purdue by almost $5 million.

Looking at the sector breakdowns, Purdue derives the biggest portion of her financing from her own candidate contributions and lawyers and lobbyists.

McCrory, on the other hand, derives most of his financing from individuals involved with finance, insurance, real estate and transportation. Considering Purdue’s personal contributions accounts for almost 10 percent of her campaign financing, it notable that McCrory does not have any personal contributions.

Bev Perdue’s Contributors

The National Institute on Money in State Politics reports that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue is leading the race in campaign financing with $7,916,639 raised to date, based on 70% of disclosure reports.

Since there are more figures available, we will look at the top six donors for her campaign:

PERDUE, BEVERLY	$634,700
NORTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATIC PARTY	$131,380
EAVES JR, ROBERT W	$10,495
NORTH CAROLINA ACADEMY OF TRIAL LAWYERS	$8,000
WORDSWORTH, ELAINE & STEVE	$8,000
MCGUIREWOODS FEDERAL PAC FUND	$8,000

Last post I mentioned that one of the top industries for contributions was candidate self-finance. Perdue’s numbers support that, her personal contributions accounting for about 8 percent of her total contributions. There is a significant drop-off into the next leading donor by almost $500,000.

In addition, her husband Robert W. Eaves Junior still falls within her top three donors, though by substantially less than her personal contributions and the N.C. Democratic Party.

Campaign Updates!

The National Institute on Money in State Politics has been updated, almost doubling the percent of campaign finance reports collected to 61%. That means much more information to explore, starting with the leading gubernatorial candidates.

Democratic candidate Bev Perdue leads with $7,916,639, while Republican candidate Pat McCrory trails with $2,650,654.

More analysis to come on the data.

One interesting tidbit is that the leading industry sources for funding comes from candidate self-finance, totaling $5,262,164, almost a tenth of the total contributions. It will be interesting to see how much of McCrory and Perdue’s campaign financing comes from self-financing. We already saw that Perdue’s husband marked a substantial portion of her contributions.

Delving into Campaign Finance Reports

I thought I’d start delving into the available campaign finance reports of the gubernatorial candidates by looking at the donors.

Unfortunately, the numbers have not been updated. The figures, which can be found at the National Institute on Money in State Politics, are based on 34% of reports filed.

In addition, there are no figures for Republican nominee Pat McCrory.

So we’ll do our best to delve into the limited numbers for Democratic candidate Bev Purdue, starting out by looking at the top donors.

The institute reports Purdue’s total raised of $3,253,077.

The top three donors are as follow:

EAVES JR, ROBERT W	$10,495		Agriculture
WORDSWORTH, ELAINE & STEVE	$8,000		Agriculture
BETTS, KATHRYN C	$4,069		Finance, Insurance & Real Estate

Upon some research, I found that top donor, Robert W. Eaves Jr., is actually her husband. According to her biography on The News and Observer, they married in Craven County on Oct. 2, 1997.

After a little more research, CampaignMoney.com lists a $250 contribution from Eaves, Robert W Mr. to democratic Connecticut senator Chris Dodd in November of 2007.

The Web site also lists The Right Stuff Food Stores Inc. as his employer.

Hopefully I’ll find a little more history on his past donations to share, and come back with more information on the other donors.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye…

Just a few weeks ago, WRAL reported that Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory called on Democratic nominee Beverly Perdue to give back donations from board member Louis Sewell of Jacksonville, after the News and Observer questioned Sewell’s voting on projects near land he owned.

A similar issue, different candidate.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that a former Board of Transportation member Tommy Pollard, who helped raise money for Republican McCrory’s campaign faced similar conflict-of-interest allegations nearly 20 years ago.

“If Pat McCrory believes his own words he should join Bev Perdue in supporting campaign finance reform that would take the big money out of gubernatorial elections,” Perdue campaign spokesman David Kochman said.

N.C. State Disclosure: B-

In the previous posts, I mentioned Bev Purdue and Pat McCrory’s calls for greater transparency in campaign financing.

In case you were wondering exactly how North Carolina matches up with other states in terms of state disclosure, there is a Web site called Campaign Disclosure that provides grades for each states’ based on subcategories.

Overall, North Carolina received a B- and ranked 23rd in the nation for 2008. The site also breaks down grades into four pertinent categories:

Subcategories	Grade	Rank
Campaign Disclosure Law	B	13
Electronic Filing Program	D	29
Disclosure Content Accessibility	A-	14
Online Contextual & Technical Usability	D	37

For more breakdown and analysis, check out the website.

Financing fuels corruption accusations

After both gubernatorial candidates proposed greater transparency in campaign financing last week, WRAL reports that both candidates are accusing the other of corruption.

WRAL reports that McCrory’s campaign began the charge by calling on Bev Perdue to return what his campaign identified as $37,500 in donations given by Board of Transportation member Louis Sewell and family members, also accusing her of “a long history of fundraising impropriety.”

The demand comes after weekend newspaper report questioned Sewell’s voting on projects near land he and a son owned.