Wake County school board member Keith Sutton has raised nearly $24,000 in his bid to retain the District 4 seat.

A new campaign report filed this week shows Sutton had raised $23,872 as of Sept. 26 with $15,386.04 on hand. Venita Peyton's new report isn't up yet but she was at under $1,000 raised at the end of August.

The largest donors for Sutton in the new report are the $2,000 from Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and $500 from Wake Citizens for Good Government.

A group against a proposed chicken plant in Nash County has hired a Raleigh PR firm to help construct its message.

Campaign Connections, a firm run by PR veteran Brad Crone that is best known for its work with politicians, has begun polling and messaging work on behalf of the Nash County Landowners Association.

The landowners are working with both the City and the County of Wilson to pay the tab, said Con Ward, chairman of the landowners group.

"We recognize this is a David and Goliath battle," Ward said of the decision to engage a PR firm. "They can hep us create better strategies."

Sanderson Farms, a publicly traded company based in Mississippi, has been working with Nash County officials in an effort to build a new plant off I-95 in southeastern Nash County.

The show, or in this case the runoff election, must go on.

Wake County Board of Elections Director Cherie Poucher said state law requires them to continue with the runoff election in District 2 even though Cathy Truitt conceded the race today. She said all the precincts, including the ones where the runoff is the only thing on the ballot, have to be open on Nov. 3.

Poucher said the problem is that the runoff officially began Thursday when early voting started. She said holding the runoff will cost more than $30,000.

The conspiracy theories are flying about Cathy Truitt's announcement today that she's conceding the school board race.

Some people think it's a ploy designed to discourage John Tedesco's supporters from coming out on Nov. 3 so that she can win, or at least have the current school board fill the seat. Truitt says those theories are ridiculous.

Here's the background from today's online story:

Below is the media advisory from Cathy Truitt's campaign about the press conference she'll hold tomorrow to announce if she's dropping out of the school board race.

MEDIA ADVISORY

Sunday, October 18, 2009

A group of local Democrats gave $22,000 in their unsuccessful last-minute TV ad against school board candidates Debra Goldman, Chris Malone and Deborah Prickett.

In this campaign finance report filed this week by Wake Citizens for Good Government, Democratic pollster Dean Debnam turned out to be the main financial backer. He donated $4,000 and loaned $6,000. The loan was repaid.

Democratic political strategist Ken Eudy and National Education Association Executive Director John Wilson both gave $4,000.

So who's responsible for these misspelled campaign signs that have popped up overnight in multiple locations in District 2?

Both the campaigns of Cathy Truitt and Horace Tart are denying any involvement with the signs.

"We would have nothing to do with this," said Nelson Dollar, Tart's campaign manager. "It's not coming from Horace Tart's campaign. That's silly."

Brad Crone, who is managing Truitt's campaign, said he heard the signs were put up by a private citizen who dislikes John Tedesco.

Cathy Truitt is taking on her District 2 school board opponents and school board member Ron Margiotta in her new newspaper ad.

In an ad that ran Tuesday in weekly newspapers in Fuquay-Varina and Garner, Truitt stresses her experience as a retired Johnston County educator. She also calls herself an "independent voice" as she blasts incumbent Horace Tart, challenger John Tedesco, western Wake and even Margiotta.

"If you want the status quo then vote for Horace Tart," Truitt said in the ad. "If you want a political pawn of Ron Margiotta and Western Wake County vote for John Tedesco. If you want an independent voice who will stand up and fight for better schools for Garner and Fuquay, then I ask for your support and vote.”