A ways back, we reported on “The North Carolina General Assembly’s River of Cash” — how and where corporate interests are spending to buy themselves a compliant state legislature. Now that Q2 reports are (mostly) out, we’ve updated the above infographic to reflect the most up-to-date data.
As you can see, giving slowed considerably in Q2 — up only about a quarter million dollars. This is mostly for two big reasons: (1) the legislature was in session, during which PACs are not allowed to give; and (2) most corporate PACs accelerated their giving in the end of 2019 and in Q1. This was much earlier giving than in the past, and is likely due to pressure from the NCGOP leadership to give heavily and early.
The good news:
Democrats in North Carolina mostly blew out their fundraising numbers in Q2. Candidates of the Long Leaf Pine Slate (and others!) are well-positioned with cash on hand going into the main campaign season. We will not out-raise the Republicans in total (see below), but most Democrats should still have quite enough to run effective campaigns.
The bad news:
NC Republicans’ fundraising looks artificially low in their Q2 reports. On July 1, the Republican caucuses and corporate PAC networks will immediately start flooding their campaign committees with money. In North Carolina, the Republicans also run a lot of their ads and mailers through their caucus coordinated committees, meaning it doesn’t necessarily show up in the candidate reports. When all is totaled up, they’re still going to out-raise us by a healthy margin.
Want to see more?
All of the data behind the infographic (and more!) is collected on a public Google Sheet which you can access here. Go bananas!
Short link: bit.ly/3c9GGKw
The Long Leaf Pine Slate is dedicated to breaking the Republican majority in the North Carolina General Assembly. Learn more about us at LongLeafPineslate.org and follow us on Twitter at @ForwardCarolina.
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