Jan. 27, 2003
The Politics May Be Local but the Cash May Not Be
By J. Barlow Herget
RALEIGH - The axiom that "all politics is local" needs to be amended. It should now read, "all politics is local, but the money may need an introduction."
North Carolina’s recent legislative races demonstrate that many campaigns were financed by money that was anything but local. Final campaign finance reports are due at the end of January, but statements filed Oct. 19, about two weeks before the Nov. 5 election, revealed interesting and surprising figures.
Legislative leaders, for example, raised record amounts. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, collected $1.26 million and 2001-2002 House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, $1.05 million, high marks for both. Senate Minority Leader Patrick Ballantine, R-New Hanover, raised $253,279; and 2001-2002 House Minority Leader Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston, $149,848.
It is safe to say that with the exception of Mecklenburg, the counties of Dare, New Hanover and Johnston are not noted as fountains for campaign cash. These legislative leaders are able to use their influential posts to attract campaign cash.
In fairness to these leaders, it should be noted that they used most of their money to help fellow candidates in districts elsewhere. Newly elected Sen. Joe Sam Queen, D-Haywood, was one such recipient.
Queen had collected $309,000 and needed every penny against Republican Gregg Thompson, an incumbent House member who had raised only $21,250 in the same period. That was one of the races that went down to the wire, and Queen’s out-of district friends made the victory possible.
It wasn’t always like this. Former U.S. Sen. Robert Morgan recalls running for the state Senate five times in the 1960s and 70s. The money he spent on these campaigns was, he says, "entirely local"—it came out of his own pocket except for one $10 contribution for gasoline.
Morgan marveled at the amounts spent on legislative campaigns in last year’s election. A list of the largest fundraisers compiled by Democracy North Carolina, a campaign finance watchdog nonprofit in Carrboro, counted 28 Democratic and ten Republican candidates who had either raised or spent more than $100,000.
Democracy North Carolina’s Bob Hall observes, "Increasingly, the money is not coming from the home district. It’s coming from interests based in Raleigh who funnel it through leadership committees."
Rep. David Miner, R-Wake, is one of the most successful fundraisers in his party and is candid about the current finance practices. Miner himself had raised $226,525 by Oct. 19 and he sent checks to fellow Republican candidates such as Rep. David Lewis of Harnett County and Rep. Patrick McHenry of Gaston County. Both won their races.
Miner, who was one of President Bush’s principal money raisers in North Carolina in the 2000 Presidential election, explains that the state parties follow the example of the national organizations in funneling money to key races. House Republicans here, for instance, set up the House Republican Majority Committee that spent about $500,000 on Republican races in 2002.
"There are three main sources for the money: one, members of the Republican House Caucus; two, really ‘heavy hitters’ [individual, wealthy donors] and three, PAC contributions and some lobbyists," says Miner.
The national parties confined their resources mostly to congressional and U.S. Senate campaigns. President Bush’s White House political staff, and especially his top political lieutenant, Karl Rove, are known for recruiting candidates to run, including North Carolina’s successful Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
The politics may have been local in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Missouri, Georgia and Texas and here at home, but it was Rove and President Bush who picked and helped finance these successful Senate candidates.
Miner sees the involvement as unprecedented but one of "great risk" that resulted in a historic mid-term victory for the President. "He had a great desire to have as many allies [in Congress] as possible," Miner argues.
Former Senator Morgan notes the change in Senate and congressional races, too: "In 1974, we raised about $700,000, and it was mostly local—North Carolina--money. In 1980, we had one fundraiser and Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia flew down. The tickets were $50! They wouldn’t look at you for that amount now."
The money from strangers who don’t know local politics may not affect those local interests, but, as Morgan believes, the money buys access for the strangers and their interests. "I’m not worried about people actually taking a bribe," he says, "but I do know that public officials will have to give an audience to people who gave substantial contributions."
Democracy North Carolina’s Hall agrees. "To succeed," he says of candidates, "you find yourself feeling accountable to that faraway bucket of money and those who have control of it."
Barlow Herget is a writer and a former member of the Raleigh City Council.
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