Our colleagues at the Center for Responsive Politics have dug up an interesting tidbit from their campaign finance database: The Dark Lord has outspent Harry Potter in political contributions. Of course, outspending your opponent doesn't guarantee victory.
(This corrects an earlier version that credited the Center for Public Integrity with the research.)
Laura Sanders, a tax columnist for the Wall Street Journal, poses an interesting question today about the legal troubles of former Sen. John Edwards: "Could two obscure taxes paid by a wealthy heiress save a former politician from prison? Quite possibly, say tax- and election-law experts. The curious tale offers a lesson for ordinary taxpayers as well."
Edwards was charged in June with several federal campaign finance violations. Prosecutors say Edwards violated the law by seeking more than $900,000 in hush money to hide his affair and the resulting pregnancy from voters.
Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a multi-millionaire philanthropist and Edwards backer, gave Edwards some $725,000 in 2008.
Mellon's lawyer told the Wall Street Journal that his client paid both gift and generation-skipping taxes on the payments. And the taxes may have been quite the doozy.
Attorney Howard Zaritsky of Rapidan, Va., told the Wall Street Journal that Mellon probably paid $799,000 in tax to make her $725,000 gift.
Edwards' lawyers are certain to argue that the taxes are proof that the money was a gift, not a campaign contribution.
We had a story today on 5A by David Lightman of our DC bureau about candidates "treating the news media as enemies this year....." This included not talking to reporters, keeping them away from campaign events, refusing to release schedules, etc.
Richard Burr was mentioned in the story, because he declined to be interviewed by reporter Barb Barrett for a story about him that we ran in the N&O and Charlotte Observer. Barb covers the NC congressional delegation for both papers.
Burr is unhappy with some stories we have done about where he has been getting his campaign funding from.
Rob Christensen, our veteran political reporter, wrote this in a story in September:
"Burr's campaign has been bankrolled largely by the business community. His donor list reads like a Dow Jones ticker.
No member of Congress during this election cycle has received more money than Burr from individuals and political action committees affiliated with pharmaceutical companies, tobacco companies, business associations, foreign import automobile dealers, dentists and steel producers, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks congressional fundraising.
Burr has received the second-highest amount of political donations of any member of Congress from the insurance industry, according to the center, and he's among the leading recipients of money from commercial banks, agribusiness and electric utilities."
I believe you can learn something about a politician by looking at where he or she gets campaign financing. I don't believe that politicians are automatically in the tank for a campaign donor. That's a little simplistic. But it's an indicator. If a politician gets a lot of money from corporate interests, it is because the politician's worldview is congruent with that of the corporate interests. I wouldn't expect a politician who gets buckets of campaign contribution from business sources to be railing against corporate greed, looking to raise capital gains taxes and the like.
Similarly, I would expect a politician who gets lots of money from unions to support policies making it easier for them to organize plants and in favor of tougher laws regarding workplace safety and for more generous unemployment benefits.
I think it's part of our job to let readers know where the campaign money is coming front, and politicians shouldn't be surprised or offended that we do it. This is the campaign finance system that the politicians have created and kept in place. If they don't want people to talk about it, if they think newspapers reporting about their big donors gives people the wrong idea about them, then don't take the money. Or work for a system that replaces private money with public financing.
One other thing.
Barb Barrett's profile on Burr last week -- the one he wouldn't talk to us for -- had a revealing detail that I liked. When Burr is in North Carolina, he often travels to events -- Rotary clubs, factory visits and the like -- by himself, driving without an entourage.
That suggests to me that he's not full of himself, which is an admirable and rare quality in a U.S. senator.
I would expect this kind of person to take newspaper reporting on campaign financing in stride and see it as a normal part of the coverage.
Both Joy Jones and Susan Doyle have raised upwards of $30,000 in the quest for the district attorney’s position, making it the biggest-spending political campaign in Johnston County this year.
In the race for sheriff and register of deeds, the challengers have raised significantly more than the incumbents so far, though without a primary this week, those campaigns have just begun.
The large number of candidates vying for school board seats appears to have limited fundraising in that race, with only two candidates, Strickland and Lisa Klisiewecz planning to raise more than $3,000 — the amount requiring disclosure forms.
The data comes from campaign finance forms filed last week with the North Carolina and Johnston County boards of elections. Johnston elections director Leigh Anne Price said all the candidates got their first-quarter reports in on time. “They did good this year,” she said.
District attorney’s race: By mid-April, Doyle led the fundraising totals in the highly publicized Republican primary race with $38,635 to Jones’ $30,258.92. Jones, a Smithfield attorney in private practice, was attempting to unseat Doyle, the incumbent.
Most of Jones’ biggest donors were private-practice attorneys. Doyle got her largest contributions from business owners, family members and her own staff members throughout the district.
The following people donated $1,000 or more to the Jones campaign: Clayton lawyer Elizabeth Carter, Benson lawyer John Ivey Jr., Clinton lawyers L.D. Starling Jr. and Douglas Parsons and Smithfield attorneys Vann Sauls, Frank Wood and Stephen Woodard Jr.
Sauls was one of the attorneys who pled guilty in the DWI-fixing scandal earlier this year. Several of his family members and co-workers also gave to the Jones campaign. But Jones said there’s nothing inappropriate about his donation since he’s not currently allowed to practice law. She said the donation likely stems from a lifelong friendship.
“Our families have grown up together,” she said.
Jones also got a $100 donation from Ed Roach. Roach is the N.C. Department of Insurance investigator who’s worked on the case of Mark Hall, the former Smithfield financial adviser charged with fraud. Jones is Hall’s court-appointed attorney. Roach said he gave because he’s gotten to know Jones through the case; he resides in Carteret County and has little connection to local politics.
“I’ve had a good working relationship with her,” Roach said. “She’s been very helpful and forthright.”
The following people donated $1,000 or more to Doyle’s campaign: Ralph Hodge of Wilson, Dunn lawyer Caron Stewart, assistant district attorney Paul Jackson, Smithfield pawn shop owner James Lassiter, Frank Lee of Smithfield, Raymond Doyle of Cary, Wayne Dale of Clayton, Robert Buzzard of Lillington, Trudy Hales of Clayton, Hunter Olive of Smithfield, Rebecca Riley of Smithfield, William Riley of Clayton and Scott Lockamy of Dunn.
The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face Democrat George Murphy of Benson in November.
Sheriff’s race: By mid-April, former state trooper Gerry Mouzon had raised almost seven times as much as incumbent Steve Bizzell, though without a primary, the race has been low key so far. Mouzon gathered $14,818.32 in donations; Bizzell garnered $2,159.54.
Much of Bizzell’s total came from himself and several smaller donors; Scott Lockamy of Dunn gave $1,000.
The following donated $1,000 or more to Mouzon’s campaign: Dell Richards of Willow Spring, Coates Hauling and Grading owner Michael Coates of Willow Spring, Manuel Cruz of Clayton and Cleveland Medicap Pharmacy owner Lance Wheeler.
School board race: Incumbent board chairman Strickland led fundraising in this race with $3,421. He received $500 from Pine Level Town Market owner Billy Daughtry, but much of his total stemmed from smaller donations.
Klisiewecz raised $1,749, with her biggest donation a $1,000 check from W.A. Holland of Smithfield.
The other nine school board candidates did not plan to raise more than $3,000 and were not required to file disclosure forms.
Register of deeds’ race: Challenger Donald Byrd of McGee’s Crossroads raised a bit more than incumbent Craig Olive, with $1,050 to Olive’s $688.23.
About half of Byrd’s total came from Pine Level Commissioner Jimmy Garner’s N.C. House campaign fund. Garner, who ran unsuccesfully for that office in 2008, is serving as Byrd’s treasurer.
Olive received $480 from Jerry Brown of Clayton and $100 from County Commissioner Cookie Pope.
I've been getting some feedback from Will Raymond and Matt Pohlman on my story, "Most missed filing deadlines."
The story said only Laurin Easthom managed to file her special pre-election report by the Oct. 29 deadline but that Pohlman and Matt Czajkowski postmarked theirs by the deadline and that Raymond's was a day late because of a Board of Elections software error.
Pohlman called to clarify that he did fax his report, along with mailing it, on Oct. 29. The BOE Web site has no record of the fax, but I have left them a message asking them to confirm (I've also asked whether any other candidates might have faxed, just in case). The fax means that both Pohlman's and Easthom's reports were available to the public on Oct. 29. Pohlman said he was proud of hitting every campaign-finance deadline.
Writing here on OrangeChat Raymond said even though his special pre-election report wasn't available at the BOE Web site on Oct. 29, he did post it on his own Web site.
As of Oct. 28, Mayor-elect Mark Kleinschmidt had spent about $16,000 out of just over $18,000 available to his campaign, according to a campaign-finance report he filed about a week late last Friday. It says he had raised about $5,300 -- close to his limit of $6,000 -- and received $13,000 from the voter-owned elections program. If he has any money left over, it must be returned to the town, regardless of where it came from.
Matt Czajkowski, one of the only three candidates who managed to file the special pre-election report by the Oct. 29 deadline, had raised $30,000 and spent more than $25,000.
Gene Pease had spent nearly $6,300 by Oct. 19, more than any other Town Council candidate, but he didn't file his report on time and it doesn't yet appear on the State Board of Elections web site. Matt Pohlman, the second-leading spender at $5,000 as of Oct. 19, did file his special pre-election report on time, and he had spent about $8,500 as of Oct. 28.
A post-election report is due on Nov. 19 and will reveal the final numbers.
At least one critic of the town's public financing program is questioning why most candidates didn't file their special pre-election campaign finance reports on time.
Pre-election reports were due on Oct. 26 and then again on Oct. 29. Only Matt Czajkowski, Matt Pohlman and Laurin Easthom hit the Oct. 29 deadline with a postmark. As of Oct. 28, Czajkowski had raised more than $30,000 and spent more than $25,000 on his mayoral campaign.
In 2007, Czajkowski spent more than $15,000 between the first "pre-election" report 10 days out and the election itself, prompting the council to insert a "special" pre-election report due a few days before the election.
"It's actually there so that people who aren't participating [in public financing] can show people what they are doing near the end," said Mayor-elect Kleinschmidt, who qualified for $9,000 in public funding plus another $4,000 in rescue funds because Czajkowski topped $21,000 in contributions.
But Czajkowski-supporter Greg Gerdau criticized Kleinschmidt and top vote-getter Penny Rich for not submitting the special reports on time.
"Certain Town Council members were so furious two years ago about money spent in between the 'pre-election report' and the election that they put in the 'special pre-election report' which obviously is supposed to be filed immediately prior to the election," wrote Gerdau in an e-mail to the N.C. State Board of Elections. "Why was this not enforced? ... Why are you not requiring candidates spending taxpayer money on their own elections to be timely and transparent in their reporting of its expenditure?"
Rich did finally file hers on Nov. 5, a week late. Overall, Rich collected more than $1,400 in individual contributions and nearly $2,900 in public funds and spent nearly all of it. Kleinschmidt said he filed by Nov. 6, though his report still doesn't show up on the Board of Elections web site.
"That was a complete oversight on our part, and apparently everyone else's, and I regret that," he said.
Councilman-elect Gene Pease still hasn't filed his, according to the BOE, nor have outgoing incumbent Jim Merritt, challenger Jon DeHart or mayoral candidates Augustus Cho or Kevin Wolff. Town Council challenger Will Raymond filed his a day late.
UPDATE: Augustus Cho called to say he didn't know about the special report and would check with the State Board of Elections Wednesday to find out if he needed to comply. Kleinschmidt told me the board hadn't warned any of the candidates of the coming deadline, which he acknowledged was not an excuse. The lack of notice apparently tripped up a lot of them.
