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.

The latest campaign finance reports show even more how much of a role liberal activist Dean Debnam played to get a new Democratic majority elected to the Wake County school board.

This year-end report filed Friday by Wake Citizens for Good Government, which was formed by Debnam in 2009, shows the PAC donated $25,000 during the school board campaign.

The biggest chunk of $10,000 went to the N.C. Democratic Party, whose final report isn't viewable yet but is expected to show something was spent in Wake on the school board races.

We're now getting concrete evidence that national money was used in the Wake County school board races to help Democratic candidates retake the board majority.

A new campaign finance report posted today by the Wake County Board of Elections shows that N.C. Citizens for Protecting Our Schools spent $8,418.69 on get-out-to-vote calls to help Democratic school board incumbent Kevin Hill.

The calls were made possible, according to the report, by a $30,000 donation on Oct. 26 from D.C.-based America's Families First Action Fund. The national 501(c)4 group has been called a super PAC that helps Democratic candidates and is heavily backed by labor unions.

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.

Wake County school board candidate Jim Martin has maintained his commanding fundraising lead over Cynthia Matson in the District 5 race.

A new campaign finance report filed this week shows Martin had raised $31,534.46 as of Sept. 26 with $19,787.51 on hand. In contrast, Matson had only raised $8,517.10 as of Sept. 26 with $2,132.38 on hand.

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

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.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo holds the clear fundraising lead for the District 3 seat.

New campaign reports filed this week show that Losurdo had raised $40,244.55 as of Sept. 26 with $9,522.60 on hand. School board member Kevin Hill reported raising $24,055 with $12,570.69 on hand. Jennifer Mansfield is well behind with $5,802.19 raised and $2,513.18 on hand.

Some of the disparity between Losurdo and Hill is mitigated by the spending that outside groups have put into the race attacking her.

Wake County school board candidate Susan Evans has reported raising $37,524.69 as of Sept. 26 with $21,770.23 on hand.

Evans' newest campaign report filed Friday shows she's still trailing school board chairman Ron Margiotta, who had already raised more than $40,000 by the end of August. But the gap might not be that big a deal considering how outside groups like Common Sense Matters and the N.C. Futures Action Fund are sending out mailers aiding her cause.

The biggest donors in Evans' latest report are the $3,000 from Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and $2,000 from Lettice Rhodes.

Christine Kushner has become only the second person to have raised more than $50,000 in a Wake County school board race.

Kushner's latest finance report filed Friday shows she had raised $50,406.93 as of Sept. 26. She has $31,383.11 on hand in the District 6 race.

School board candidates are required to file a "pre-election" report, postmarked no later than this upcoming Monday, showing their finances as of Sept. 26. Aside from reporting any new contributions of greater than $1,000 between Sept. 26 and Election Day, they don't have to file any additional reports until the end of the year or unless they're in a run-off.

Democrats are continuing to hit the "stop the Tea Party" theme in an attempt to defeat Wake County school board candidates Heather Losurdo and Ron Margiotta.

As noted in today's article, a new mailer appearing in mail boxes Tuesday urges people to request an absentees ballot to stop the Tea Party. It's funded by the same group that paid for the mailers that came over the weekend accusing Margiotta and Losurdo of pushing the Tea Party agenda on Wake schools.

This new mailer says "you can stop the Tea Party without even leaving your couch." It also reads "with absentee balloting, there's no excuse to skip this election and let the Tea Party win."