The Wake County Democratic Party outspent the Wake County Republican Party by more than two to one last year to help win the pivotal school board battle.

While it's hard to say how much was specifically spent on the Wake County school board races, the campaign finance reports would suggest that the Democrats were more active in getting their candidates elected. For instance, Democrats had a target of $80,000 in their get-out-the-vote efforts for the October races.

According to their year-end report, the Wake County Democratic Party received $176,227.18 and spent $183,252.88. According to their year-end report, the Wake County Republican Party raised $81,965.98 and spent $83.089.33.

New Wake County school board member Jim Martin raised more than $37,000 during his successful election bid, despite what it says in his filings.

Martin's year-end campaign report filed Monday shows him with a deficit of $13,443.70. But it looks like the report has a number of errors, including not including the amounts raised and spent in prior reports.

When factoring in the last report filed before the election, it looks like Martin raised $37.076 and spent $30,732.19 in winning the District 5 seat.

Wake County school board member Christine Kushner raised more than $50,000 in her bid to win the District 6 seat.

In her final 2011 report filed Wednesday, Kushner reported raising $51,343.47 and spending $37,123.21. This leaves the Democrat with $14,220.26 that she can use to donate to other groups or to prepare for a future campaign run.

Her main opponent, Republican Donna Williams, raised $48.335.96.

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill raised nearly $70,000 in his successful reelection bid this fall.

A new report filed today shows that Hill, a Democrat, raised $68,598 and spent $54,322 in the District 3 race. Heather Losurdo, a Republican, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $82,357 through Oct. 24.

Before this year, only one candidate had raised more than $50,000 in a Wake school board race. But at least four candidates hit that mark last fall during the high-stakes election.

New Wake County school board member Susan Evans raised more than $40,000 in her successful bid to unseat incumbent Ron Margiotta,

In her final campaign report filed today, Evans reported raising $43,386.53 and spending $39.077.16. Margiotta hasn't filed his final report yet, but he had reported raising $52,748.31 as of Sept. 26.

But the funding gap between Evans, a Democrat, and Margiotta, a Republican, is a lot narrower considering all the outside money that was poured into the District 8 race.

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton raised more than $30,000 during his lopsided election win in District 4 last fall.

In Sutton's final campaign report filed Thursday, the Democratic-backed candidate reported raising $33,327 and spending $32,484.31. His Republican challenger, Venita Peyton, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $1,280 as of Sept. 26.

Sutton's report seems to be missing some info. He reports having raised $5,500 from other political committees on his summary page. But the actual page listing this contribution or contributions isn't included.

Ann and John Campbell are continuing to give money to help Democratic candidates running for the Wake County school board.

A new campaign report posted this morning shows both gave $2,000 to the Wake Citizens for Good Government PAC formed by Dean Debnam. This $4,000 combined contribution, made possible by the runoff election, comes on top of the $8,000 they previously had given to Wake Citizens for Good Government and the $40,000 to the five Democratic school board candidates.

All together, the reports released so far show the Campbells have donated $52,000 to unseat the board majority. The amount is expected to keep going up once updated reports are filed by Kevin Hill, the Wake County Democratic Party and potentially the 501 and 527 groups.

Now who are Ann and John Campbell, the people who've donated some $50,000 to help elect the new Democratic candidates to the Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article by John Frank, the Campbells aren't talking. Neither are their friends or associates.

"Their involvement is more about policy than politics," said Dan Blue III, a close friend of John Campbell who used to work him. He refused to talk more about the Campbells, calling them "private citizens" who don't want the spotlight.

Record amounts of campaign cash are already flowing into the Wake County school board races with a month of fundraising still to go.

As noted in today's article, the individual candidates have raised a record total of more than $238,000 so far. That's more than the $167,000 raised by candidates in 2007 and the $155,000 raised in 2009.

With the political parties and political action committees also actively raising cash, it's likely this year's final total will exceed the more than $340,000 in overall school board election money raised in 2009.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and Susan Evans are both pulling in substantial amounts of cash in the District 8 race, including money from the Popes, Bob Luddy and the Campbells.

The new campaign report filed today by Margiotta shows he had raised $40,367.33 as of Aug. 30 with $34,111.23 on hand. The new report for Evans shows she had raised $26,406.43 as of Aug. 30 with $21,405.30 on hand.

The biggest donors for Margiotta in his new report are the $4,000 apiece from conservative businessman Art Pope, his wife Katherine Pope and conservative businessman Bob Luddy.