News

WHO GAVE WHAT: Spend to win carries the day

Candidates and elected officials during the annual meeting of the Republican Party on March 22 were, from left, Charlie McDonald, Evona Kilpatrick, Lee King, Tommy Thompson, Tim Griffin, Nedra Moles, Mark Powell, Michael Edney and Bill Lapsley.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 30, 2014

Candidates who raised the most money won their races during the local primary elections on May 6 in nearly every case.

In a primary election season that saw a high spending level overall, local candidates raised money in large and small amounts and in many instances loaned money to their campaigns. A pattern that emerged, according to the Hendersonville Lightning's review of campaign finance reports, was that the bigger spender won and the wider the money gap, the wider the election margin.
Challenger Bill Lapsley defeated three incumbent Larry Young by the widest margin among the three contests for seats on the Henderson County Board of Commissioners, 57-43 percent. Lapsley also had by far the widest campaign fundraising advantage, outspending Young by $23,700 — $35,251 to $11,555, a 3-to-1 margin.
"That's probably about right," Young said when told that the spending race mirrored the election results. "It takes the money to run elections."
Young actually raised more money when he first won election in 2002, defeating incumbent Marilyn Gordon.
"The first thing, you need to look at is the record," he said. "If somebody doesn't have a record, look at character, ability, the support they have and try to make a decision from that. I figured if people knew my record they'd vote for me."
Incumbent Tommy Thompson won the District 4 seat by a razor-thin margin of 50.5 to 49.3 percent. Thompson and challenger Tim Griffin also had by far the tightest campaign spending race. Thompson spent $8,778, just $706 more than Griffin's total of $8,072.
The District 1 race could be the exception that proves the rule. Michael Edney reported spending a total of $11,645 in a campaign in which he held off challengers Andrew Riddle and Hogan Corn. Winning his fourth term overall, Edney collected 51 percent of the vote followed by Riddle with 37 percent and Corn with 12. Riddle had not yet filed his campaign finance report for the period ending on June 30 but by April 20 he had raised $10,040. If he spent another $1,606 he would surpass Edney's total.

Sheriff's race tops $100,000

The spend-to-win battle held true in the sheriff's race, too.
The three candidates for sheriff combined to spend $109,601. Sheriff Charlie McDonald won the primary with 50.3 percent of the vote, followed by Michael Brown (31.4 percent) and Erik Summey (18.4 percent). Again, the money race ended in the same order, with McDonald spending $55,814, followed by Brown with $29,180 and Summey at $24,607. McDonald ended the second quarter with $4,560 in cash on hand, and would be in a position to raise more against Democratic nominee Martin Katz, who reported raising $3,792 and spending $3,462 in the second quarter.
In the register of deeds race, Lee King, who defeated Evona Kilpatrick in last week's runoff election, led Kilpatrick in spending through June 30 — $10,247 to $7,685.

Legislative incumbents have cash

If election numbers mirror fundraising in November as they did in May, then challengers face an uphill climb for two legislative seats.
Six-term incumbent Tom Apodaca reported $205,475 cash on hand through the second quarter after raising $69,000 and spending $16,700. Democratic challenger Rick Wood, reported $22,854 cash on hand. The School Board member raised $6,839 and spent $1,363 during the period.
State Rep. Chuck McGrady, who faces Libertarian Shelby Mood, spent $73,000 so far this year, winning a primary election over challenger Ronnie Edwards. Edwards raised $50 and spent $500 in the second quarter, and finished the primary campaign having raised $8,933 and spending $8,339.
McGrady, who faces Libertarian Shelby Mood in the general election, reported that he had $7,611 cash on hand on June 30.
Among McGrady's expenditures during the primary was $5,000 to In Touch NC, the online campaign media company owned by Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Asheville.
Moffit runs campaign websites and handles social media for about 30 of his House colleagues. McGrady is one of his biggest customers, spending a total of $12,000 on the online service.
"It's been a helpful way for me to get information back to my district," McGrady told Carolina Public Press, an online news organization that posted a story on Moffitt's company last month. "On occasion, they have put something out that I might not agree with, and I have said, 'No, I don't want that. That doesn't reflect my views.' For example, Tim (Moffitt) was the lead sponsor on the regulatory reform bill. I voted against it, so I told them I did not need their commentary (about the bill) on my site."