Fitzsimon File

Big money continues to dominate North Carolina politics. Not much news there, but a new report shows how agile big contributors and political parties have become making sure that money still rules despite efforts to reform the system.

A 2002 federal law limited the amount of money that national political parties could raise and pass on to state party committees. But that didn’t stop political parties from raising what is called soft money, it just changed how they raised it.

The Institute on Money in State Politics finds that the North Carolina Democratic Party raised $7.6 million in soft money for the 2004 election, the Republican Party $1.5 million. It is not surprising that Democrats are doing far better raising soft money since they control the Governor’s Mansion and both chambers in the General Assembly.

Much of the soft money came from Democratic candidates’ committees. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight gave the state party $1.3 million. House Speaker Jim Black gave $700,000. Black also runs a national committee that gave the state party $400,000.

Those dollars do more than get out the vote or pay for the operation of the party machinery. The party directs large sums of money to legislative candidates in close races, meaning that Black and Basnight raise money to pay for the campaigns of legislators who then support them for reelection to their leadership post. 

Senator John Snow won a very close election in 2004 against incumbent Senator Bob Carpenter. Snow won after the North Carolina Democratic Party gave his campaign more than $150,000 in October. Snow lives in Murphy in the North Carolina mountains, hundreds of miles from Raleigh. But money from Raleigh raised by Basnight helped decide who would represent the people of Murphy in the Senate.

It is pretty hard to imagine a member of the House or Senate who receives thousands of dollars from Black or Basnight ever bucking their chamber’s leader.  The practice does more than keep a political party in power, it helps keep individual leaders in power in the General Assembly too.  This is Basnight’s 7^th term running the Senate, Black’s 4^th as Speaker of the House.

It is also hard to believe that lobbyists or special interests that hire lobbyists can turn down an invitation to give Black or Basnight money if the group wants some consideration by the General Assembly in the following session.  It’s an offer they can’t refuse.

It is not just a Democratic strategy. Republican Senator Fred Smith gave the Republican Party $175,000 that was used to help Republican candidates far from Smith’s Johnston County district. Republican leaders make no secret of their aim to duplicate the Democrats fundraising and money-funneling efforts.

It does not have to be this way of course. There is a system in which voters in a legislative district can regain control of their own elections from the big money from legislative leaders in Raleigh.  The short-term solution is to limit contributions from one political committee to another to the $4,000 limit that now applies to individual contributions.  

That won’t stop the massive money shifting, but it will slow it down, meaning that lawmakers might feel free to vote against their leadership when they disagree. But it won’t ultimately fix the problem. Limiting political contributions is like playing whack-a-mole at the upcoming state fair. Knock the money down in one place and it pops back up somewhere else.

The ultimate solution is not to clear the political playing field of special interest money, but to level it with public money for candidates that comes with no strings or promises.

Arizona and Maine already have public financing in state campaigns and North Carolina now allows candidates for appellate judgeships to receive public funds. Voters in Albuquerque just approved public financing of municipal elections by more than a two-to-one margin. 

Efforts are underway in the North Carolina General Assembly to establish public financing in most Council of State elections.

Reacting to the study on soft money in state parties, the spokesperson for the state Republican party told the News and Observer that he is not discouraged by the Democrats fundraising edge, saying “looking at the big picture, we feel pretty good with the results.”

When voters look at the big picture, they can’t feel very good with both parties raising millions of dollars from special interests and using it to buy their local elections. Time for an end to political moneyball in North Carolina. 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.