Survey Results from Candidates for Governor
Responses of Gubernatorial Candidates
Responses are in alphabetical order by last name
PAT MCCRORY
1.As with the laws of physics, i.e., for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction, such it is with the laws of political contributions. Over the years, various attempts have been made and various legislation passed attempting to limit the ways contributions can be made. If there are candidates who are willing and eager to receive dubious, questionable, or illegal contributions there really is no law that will stop them. For such a system to work, you have to presume honest candidates, honest campaigns, and honest contributors. I would be most interested if you could persuade Bev Perdue and Richard Moore to join me and together we might be able to lead by example and help clean up North Carolina politics.
Make sure that candidates and their campaigns obey state and federal election law by having stricter scrutiny of their finance reports.
Eliminate cash contributions because they cannot be traced (i.e., known as “passing the hat”).
2. Yes.
3. Yes. State parties are in the business of being involved in partisan politics and elections. As long as the money is raised and distributed legally they should be free to operate. As the media in this state has become even more monopolistic and uniform, and news stories continue to take on editorial page style commentary, the parties and candidates who are not favored by the media have to have an opportunity to raise enough money to get their agenda in front of the public. Many of your questions involve the actions and behavior of PAC’s and continue to presume the benign intent of what is more and more a slanted, disinterested media in the state.
4.Absolutely No! – especially for “not-for-profits” that they directly stand to benefit from as many of our state legislators appear to be doing. Simply putting a “not-for-profit” patina on a fund raising scam does not remove the taint of corruption and conflict of interest it creates. The amount of money the state has doled out in recent years to such “not-for-profits” run by state legislatures is neither coincidental nor capricious and merits both an intensive and in-depth investigation into the highest levels of government in this state.
Eliminate the practice entirely and end funding such “nongovernmental organizations” from the state budget
5.Yes. An individual, simply by being a lobbyist, does not surrender their rights to actively participate in partisan politics via their PACs. The PAC itself can better determine who should serve on the boards. Elections are partisan by nature and the government should not be overly involved in choosing who is eligible to participate and how they should participate. The contribution rules should be clean and simple and easy to understand and investigate. Personally, I believe that cash contributions should not be
BEVERLY PERDUE
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share my thoughts on lobbying reform with you and your member organizations. I appreciate the hard work the North Carolina Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform has done to combat the influence of special interests in our government. I have issued a plan to establish the Public Endowment for Positive Gubernatorial Campaigns which addresses some of the concerns of your organization and I would like to take this opportunity to share it with you. Adopting this or a similar policy would be an important first step in creating an even playing field for gubernatorial candidates. I am proud to say that my rival for the Democratic nomination for governor has endorsed this plan.
I am strongly committed to the task of raising the to start the public endowment in 2012 as well as securing permanent endowment funding from individual philanthropists, foundations, companies as well other civic groups, and the contributions of ordinary North Carolinians. I also believe that the Endowment could ultimately be expanded to council of state and legislative campaigns. This would eliminate the influence of private special-interest money and require a positive tone in gubernatorial, council of state and legislative campaigns.
Reducing the power of special interests in elections is an important first step. However, as Governor I am committed to going further by reducing the influence of special interests in government after elections are over. I believe that the best way to accomplish this task is by shining the light of day on government contracts. I have proposed creating NC Open Book, an online resource for the public that will bring “Google” accountability to state contracts. Under this program, state agencies would be required to report all state contracts over $10,000. The public would then be able to search these online, ensuring that special interests can no longer make back room deals without the knowledge of the citizens of our state.
I am fed up with the status quo of private special-interest money influence and I am dedicated to leading the effort to change the system.
Respectfully,
Bev Perdue
1.Yes, I support prohibiting lobbyists from raising money for legislative and statewide candidates and their committees. Yet I would see such a step by itself as only a stop-gap measure because a transformation of the system is needed. Especially in the absence of public financing, such total contribution and fundraising bans may be subject to constitutional challenge. Thus, I would also support significant restrictions that stopped short of a total ban if constitutionally necessary.
2.Yes, I would support “sunshine” legislation where any individual raising more than $10,000 for a candidate would have to be identified by name, occupation, and the amount raised. My Public Endowment proposal would put an end to dependence on private special interest money and big dollar fundraising. But as a stop-gap measure, I would support state legislation like that co-sponsored by Congressman David Price at the federal level (Section 10 of H.R. 776).
I believe in shining the light on campaign contributions during the election cycle, but we can not stop there. It is not enough to reduce the influence of special interests on elections; we must also reduce their power in the General Assembly. I believe that the best way to do this is by allowing the public to have easy, open access to review government contracts. I have introduced a policy that will create NC Open Book, an online resource which is searchable over the internet. Every state agency will be required to submit detailed information about government contracts that exceed $10,000. This kind of “Google” accountability will ensure that special interests have less influence over how state money is spent.
3.No, I do not believe that state parties should be allowed to provide unlimited money to candidates. My Public Endowment plan requires political parties to agree not to spend or raise money in order for a party nominee to qualify for funding. I agree that in the absence of public funding we should place limits on how much money parties can provide to candidates.
4.I would support a ban or significant restrictions on the solicitation of lobbyists by legislators and members of the Council of State
5. I would support a formal ban that prohibits lobbyists from serving on the PAC committees of their clients. But I believe that the main focus of reform efforts should be on establishing a public endowment for positive campaigns as I have proposed and ending the current system of private special-interest and big-dollar fundraising