LOD: Inside View of Outside Money

Because the State Board of Elections is starved for funds, the public gets a poor view of how money flows into our elections: Who is giving and spending what for whose benefit? While other states have searchable databases of donors, the backlog for processing campaign disclosure reports in NC is measured in years. (See, for example, this Democracy NC report on the backlog.) The problem is even worse when it comes to tracking the millions spent on elections by outside groups that are supposedly not coordinated with a candidate. Thankfully, here comes the Institute for Southern Studies with what it calls “North Carolina’s first searchable database of election-year spending by independent groups in state races. . . . FollowNCMoney.org gathers all reports on TV ads, mailers and other independent expenditures by outside groups in North Carolina, and places them in an easy-to-use searchable and sortable database. Users can sort the information by the name of the group spending the money, the date of the expenditure, the political race where it appears and the affected candidate.” ISS emphasizes that the site is “a beta release,” undergoing revisions and updates “largely because of gaps and inconsistencies in government reports.” Check it out, play around with the data, turn in your feedback! Thanks ISS/Facing South!