Campaign Spending Report

Legislative BulletiN

February 23, 2001

Democracy South found that incumbents outspent their opponents by a record margin of 2.7 to 1, and 96 percent of incumbents who ran -- 151 out of 157 -- were re-elected

Cost of winning
a House seat soars
to $69,000, Senate seat to $134,500

To no one's surprise, a new report says candidates for the General Assembly spent a record amount of money running for office last fall. The report by Democracy South, a Chapel Hill think tank, says legislative candidates spent $19.4 million on their campaigns last year, with the 170 winners spending a total of $15 million -- 26 percent more than in 1998 and nearly three times what was spent in 1994.

The increasing competitiveness between the political parties, plus the rising cost of TV time, is blamed for the increase.

The group, which based its reports on campaign finance reports filed with the State Board of Elections, said the average cost of winning a seat in the House climbed to $69,000 in 2000, up from $49,800 in 1998 and $25,800 in 1994. The average cost of a Senate seat rose to $134,500 this time from $117,500 in 1998 and $36,300 in 1994.

Democracy South found that incumbents outspent their opponents by a record margin of 2.7 to 1, and 96 percent of incumbents who ran -- 151 out of 157 -- were re-elected. Top spenders won 87 percent of contested races for legislative seats, and candidates who outspent their opponents more than 2-to-1 won 91 percent of the time.

Democratic House candidates outspent their Republican opponents by $7 million to $4.2 million. Democrats running for the Senate outspent Republicans $6.5 million to $1.6 million. With more than one-third of candidates facing no major-party opposition last fall, only a relative handful of races were truly competitive.

The battle for control generally involves 12 to 15 swing seats in each chamber, so legislative leaders raise money and focus spending on behalf of their candidates in those critical districts.

House Speaker Jim Black (D-Mecklenburg) led all spenders with $963,154 in expenditures. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D-Dare) was second with $901,382.

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Candidate	Party	Result	Spending
Jim Black	D	Won	$963,154
Marc Basnight	D	Won	901,382
Linda Garrou	D	Won	368,110
Scott Thomas	D	Won	341,856
Alice Underhill	D	Won	326,546
Cal Cunningham	D	Won	320,562
Tony Rand	D	Won	301,882
Zeno Edwards	D	Won	285,109
A.B. Swindell	D	Won	281,547
Fountain Odom	D	Won	279,505
Wiley Wooten	D	Lost	275,033
Charles Carter	D	Won	274,396
Phil Baddour	D	Won	261,929
Patrick Ballantine	R	Won	261,334
Art Pope	R	Won	254,165
Howard Lee	D	Won	250,077
Jack Nichols	D	Lost	248,727
Richard Morgan	R	Won	241,873
Ed McMahan	R	Won	239,967
Aaron Plyler	D	Won	224,483
Steve Metcalf	D	Won	215,273
Eric Reeves	D	Won	210,885
Max Melton	D	Lost	208,937
John Bridgeman	D	Lost	204,922
Leslie Cox	D	Won	204,625
David Hipps	R	Lost	199,043
Edd Nye	D	Won	195,668
Lanier Cansler	R	Won	192,072
L. Sossamon	D	Lost	184,996
Mary L. McColl	D	Lost	183,700
Jennifer Weiss	D	Won	182,317
Charlie Albertson	D	Won	173,362
Connie Wilson	R	Won	169,499
Walter Dalton	D	Won	161,157
John Kerr	D	Won	160,879
Bert Wood	D	Lost	156,350
David Miner	R	Won	155,439
Allen Wellons	D	Won	154,965
Kay Hagan	D	Won	152,755
MarianMcLawhorn	D	Won	146,508
William Purcell	D	Won	146,019
Dan Robinson	D	Won	145,861
Bill Caster	R	Lost	144,710
David Huskins	D	Lost	141,656
David Hoyle	D	Won	139,638
Oscar Harris	D	Won	135,607
Ronnie Smith	D	Won	132,653
Nurham Warwick	D	Won	131,582
David Redwine	D	Won	130,807
Nelson Cole	D	Won	129,102
Russell Tucker	D	Won	126,377
Lorene Coates	D	Won	123,920
Ed Warren	D	Won	121,465
Jim Johnson	D	Lost	119,211
Lyons Gray	R	Won	118,119
David Weinstein	D	Won	105,060
Robert Rucho	R	Won	103,677
Martin Nesbitt	D	Won	102,025
John Glenn	D	Lost	101,295
John Nichols	R	Lost	101,001
Hugh Webster	R	Won	100,340
Harold Brubaker	R	Won	97,504
Wilma Sherrill	R	Won	96,305
Mitch Gillespie	R	Won	93,360
Phil Haire	D	Won	91,997
Brad Miller	D	Won	91,596