{"id":9019,"date":"2011-10-09T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=9019"},"modified":"2011-10-10T11:28:34","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T15:28:34","slug":"spending-big-and-small-for-raleigh%e2%80%99s-mayoral-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2011\/10\/09\/spending-big-and-small-for-raleigh%e2%80%99s-mayoral-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Pockets Support Redmond for Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billie Redmond is leaving her competitors for mayor far in the distance when it comes to fundraising.<\/p>\n

So far, she raised $191,000 to Nancy McFarlane\u2019s $66,000 (discounting McFarlane\u2019s personal loans and contributions of $131,000 to her own campaign) and Randy Williams\u2019 $49,750.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Billie Redmond<\/p><\/div>\n

Redmond said the difference in contributions shows she has the widest range of support. But, Board of Elections documents show that at least 49.9 percent of Redmond\u2019s war chest is coming from people and organizations with ties to the development industry.<\/p>\n

She is backed by influential political action committees like the NC Realtor PAC and NC Home Builders Association PAC, both of which gave the $4,000 limit.<\/p>\n

She also received $2,000 from Singh PAC NC, which is based in Michigan. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, it is also a development PAC.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just the PAC\u2019s that are giving. Those with ties to the development who gave personal contributions to Redmond include Sam Longiotti ($4,000), Susan Longiotti ($4,000), RW Mullins ($2,000), Stephen Zelnak ($4,000) and Stephen Kenney ($1,000).<\/p>\n

\u201cToo much money from one source is troubling,\u201d said Executive Director of the NC Center for Voter Education Damon Circosta. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a few deep-pocketed donors financing a campaign, the question is, \u2018Are they [the candidates] really beholden to the citizenry at-large or just those players.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But Redmond, who comes from real estate, maintains she\u2019s beholden to no one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s it different than officials who focus on their own districts?\u201d Redmond asked. \u201cYou have to be fair, honest and transparent. Everybody has conflicts of interest. You deal with them by being honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grassroots Donations<\/strong><\/p>\n

The level of small, or grassroots, donations in the Raleigh mayoral race tell a different story than the bottom line amount of money being raised by each candidate.<\/p>\n

Aggregated contributions account for donations of $50 or less and McFarlane is hammering away in that department. She brought in $4,974 compared to Redmond\u2019s $2,476 and Williams\u2019 $1,375.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Nancy McFarlane<\/p><\/div>\n

McFarlane has a relatively low amount of development money coming in. Her biggest donations from any one contributor have not exceeded $1,000.<\/p>\n

Local developer JM Thompson gave $1,000 to McFarlane, as did a dentist, a homemaker and a Progress Energy executive, according to campaign finance reports filed with the county.<\/p>\n

McFarlane is her own biggest donor. She has loaned herself $95,000 and donated another $36,000 to her own campaign, according to campaign reports.<\/p>\n

Political Science Professor David McLennan at William Peace University said grassroots donations can indicate a broader base of support.<\/p>\n

But broad support doesn\u2019t necessarily outweigh the impact of spending.<\/p>\n

McLennan added, \u201cIf McFarlane hadn\u2019t spent her own money – and just relied on typical campaign contributions – and let Redmond get the momentum going, it may have been impossible for her to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d said McFarlane. \u201cIn these tough economic times, for people to give what they can, even if that means $25, that means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour average voter wants to see a whole lot of support from a whole lot of people,\u201d said Circosta with the Center for Voter Education.<\/p>\n

Development money runs through it\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Raleigh City Council\u2019s main focus now and always is development. Accordingly, Redmond isn\u2019t the only one in on development dollars.<\/p>\n

Some contributors have donated to multiple campaigns. Samuel and Theo Bratton of Wake Stone, a company with close ties to development, gave $500 each to Redmond and Williams, as well as $200 each to McFarlane.<\/p>\n

John Kane, a local real estate mogul whose company redesigned North Hills, gave $500 to all three campaigns.<\/p>\n

The president of commercial real estate corporation Hamilton Merritt Inc. Gregg Sandreuter contributed $500 to both the McFarlane and the Redmond campaign.<\/p>\n

And Stephen Kenney of Kenney Properties gave $1,000 each to Williams and Redmond.<\/p>\n

Kane, Sandreutter, and Kenney have all given significant amounts in previous city council and mayoral campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it more in local races,\u201d said McLennan. \u201cThey want to have access and perhaps influence over\u2014no matter who wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even with the development dollars overlapping, Redmond has a decisive fundraising advantage, which could mean a lot if the race comes to a run-off. Redmond still has $51,000 she hasn\u2019t spent. McFarlane is down to $5,700.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time McFarlane has been out-fundraised. When she took the District A city council seat in 2007, she deposed incumbent Republican Tommy Craven, despite the fact her bank account was nearly half the size of his. In that race too, she loaned herself more than half the total funds in her campaign account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billie Redmond claims her fundraising figures show she has the most widespread support but a Record analysis of campaign finance records shows she received almost half of her money from people with ties to development. Nancy McFarlane has the most donations of $50 or less. We talk to the candidates and take a look at what the numbers mean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":8424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[214,15,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}