Looking for Funds in All the Wrong Places
04/26/2007
Executive Summary
Out-of-district financial contributions
from special interests and wealthy
individuals undermine democracy in
North Carolina by reducing the influence
of citizens who live in a candidate’s district.
North Carolina should adopt a public financing system for legislative campaigns to
address this problem.
Campaign contributions influence who
runs for office and who wins.
- Before deciding whether to enter a
race, candidates assess their ability to
raise campaign funds. Those candidates who fear they will be badly
outspent by their opponent—perhaps
because of less willingness or ability to
raise money from corporate interests,
or less personal wealth or fewer
wealthy friends who will contribute to
the campaign—may decide to forgo a
run for office.
- Candidates give careful consideration
to their fundraising ability because
money plays such a key role in determining who will win. In North Carolina races, typically the candidate who
raises the most money wins the
election. In the state’s 2002 elections,
only 11 percent of winning candidates
were outspent by their opponent.
Campaigns for seats in the North Carolina House and Senate are heavily funded
by donors from outside the candidates’ districts, and even from out of state.
We analyzed contributions to 10 powerful members of North Carolina’s Legislature during their 2006 campaigns to
determine how much funding came from
outside the candidates’ districts.
- On average, 74 percent of funding
came from outside the district, including 14 percent from outside the state.
- The average in-district contribution
was $312, while the average out-of-district contribution was $1,167.
Contributions from individuals were
more likely to come from within the district than were contributions from political action committees (PACs). However,
candidates raised more money from committees outside their districts than from
individuals in their districts.
- On average, 62 percent of funds from
individual contributions came from
citizens within the candidate’s district.
In contrast, 1 percent of funds from
PAC contributions came from within
the district.
- Together, the candidates raised
$750,000 from individuals and $1.1
million from PACs.
This analysis is not intended as a criticism of these ten individual
office-holders, but rather as an illustration of a systemic problem
that affects all legislators. North Carolina’s current campaign finance
system encourages candidates to raise money from wealthy individuals
and powerful interests, wherever they are located. The result is that a
small number of powerful out-of-district interests and wealthy donors
heavily influence the outcome of North Carolina’s elections, even if
these contributors have little connection to a candidate’s home
district. Thus, while the fundraising of the 10 candidates included in
this report is not inappropriate, illegal or corrupt, it is symptomatic
of a broken system for financing political campaigns.
Establishing a public financing system
for North Carolina’s legislative elections
would prevent special interest money from
overwhelming the interests of ordinary citizens. Under a public financing system, candidates who collect a requisite number of
qualifying small contributions from voters
would be eligible for public funding for
their campaigns, reducing the role of
out-of-district contributions in the state’s
elections.
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Read our news release.
 Download the full report.
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