The Rise of the Legislative 'Superleader'

By J. Barlow Herget
Published: Oct. 17, 2005

RALEIGH - In the olden days, as storytellers say, North Carolina House Speakers and Senate Presidents held office for a term or two and then stepped down. They might make a small contribution to a colleague's campaign or speak at his fundraiser. That was then.

This is now. North Carolina's two legislative leaders, Senate President Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, have become two of the largest campaign contributors in the state, according to a recent report from the nonprofit Institute on Money and State Politics based in Montana.

Basnight gave the state Democratic Party over $1.3 million to help in legislative campaigns in the 2004 election. Black paid about $700,000 from his campaign committee to the party.

Basnight has served as Senate President Pro Tem since 1993 and Black became Speaker in 1999.

The rise of the legislative “superleader” began in the 1990s, and the trend gained momentum as Republicans became more competitive in state politics. Before that, former Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker recalls, “Every legislator was on his own.”

As House Majority leader between 1989-1993, Wicker says legislative leaders raised money for the party to spend in “swing districts” and targeted races. “Things changed around 1994 and the mid-1990s,” he says.

The biggest factor in that change?

“The cost of running an election soared,” says former Sen. Wib Gulley, D-Durham. Candidates began to ape the campaign spending habits established by statewide and congressional candidates.

“They hire professional staff. They buy expensive media, especially television. Pollsters are involved now,” Gulley explains.

The 1994 election was the big turning point, and it established as never before that North Carolina was a two-party state.

“Republicans won the House,” remembers Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina in Carrboro, “and they narrowed the Democrats' lead in the Senate.” Senate Democrats responded by organizing, in Hall's words, “a fund raising machine” for future campaigns.

Republicans followed, and House Republicans even surpassed Democrats in the 1996 election. They retained their majority a second term.

The system today works like this:

In both the Senate and House, Democrats and Republicans have established caucuses that, according to one former caucus executive, are like “bank accounts” in their respective party organizations.

“They have become integral to the parties,” says Hall. “They are similar to Senior Democrats or Democratic Women groups.”

It is the legislative leaders–Democratic and Republican–who are the principal fund raisers for these committees. For instance, Sen. Fred Smith, R-Johnston, a popular caucus member and likely gubernatorial candidate in 2008, contributed more than $175,000 to the Republican Party's political fund.

The leaders' legislative and political clout attracts contributors. Rank and file legislators are also “encouraged” to raise money. North Carolina campaign laws limit individual contributions to $4,000 per election (primary and general) to candidates. Corporate contributions are prohibited.

What is not limited is the amount of money individuals or campaign committees can give to the state political parties. “They can not only receive a check for $100,000 from a wealthy individual but a $250,000 check from the Marc Basnight Committee,” says Hall.

In turn, the parties are not limited in spending money to help individual candidates. Typically, the money has strings attached. The legislative leaders direct where the money will go.

Says Bill Cobey, former Republican Party chair, “The House and Senate caucuses fund activities out of the party for individual, targeted candidates. When I was party chair, we didn't give money directly [to the candidates]. We did more direct mail or radio.”

These targeted and competitive races have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years. Candidates spent over $400,000 combined in seven important Senate races in the 2002 election.

The system, it should be noted, meets current campaign laws and it works in a campaign landscape where the candidate who spends the most wins 82 percent of the time in contested races.

But as more money is spent, more money is raised.

In the 2000 General Assembly races, House Speaker Black spent $963,154 mostly to help Democratic House candidates. Senate President Basnight spent $901,382, based on disclosure reports filed at the State Board of Elections.

In 2002, the two leaders combined spent $2 million to help other candidates. House Republicans Ed McMahan, Connie Wilson and Leo Daughtry gave a combined $211,700.

It doesn't take a logician to see what this arrangement has done for the leaders. They have more control over winning majorities for their parties by supporting key campaigns. They collect IOUs from the candidates who receive the money.

“It has solidified their control,” observes Hall. “The situation is getting worse because the need for money is increasing.”

That's what worries people such as Gulley who says ruefully, “Money becomes the measurement of value.”