ecently filed state and federal campaign finance reports suggest a national Republican organization may have piped as much as $1.5 million in corporate contributions to the North Carolina Republican Party, prompting a formal complaint from Democrats that the GOP is circumventing state limits on the size of individual contributions and prohibitions on corporate donations.
Officials with both the state Republican Party and the Republican Governors Association, a national group that supports GOP candidates such as Gov. Pat McCrory, insist they have followed both federal and state law. Corporate contributions to parties and candidates are illegal under North Carolina campaign finance law, with rare exceptions for things such as referendum efforts and accounts used to pay for party headquarters….
A spokesman for the RGA said Saturday that the contributions do not violate either the prohibition on corporate contributions or limitations on contributions from single donors. In an email, he said Democrats did not seem to understand the state’s campaign finance laws.
“This baseless complaint from the North Carolina Democratic Party is a direct attempt to mislead voters. The RGA’s contributions contained no corporate dollars, as compliant with state law,” RGA spokesman Jon Thompson said in response to questions about the transactions. “Unable to articulate a cohesive message about the issues or counter North Carolina’s positive momentum, it’s no surprise that Roy Cooper and his friends are using outright falsehoods and fabrications as the closing message for his struggling campaign.”
Thompson pointed to reports showing that the Democratic Governors Association put money into the state Democratic Party, including a $1 million transfer reported in by the National Journal last week, and asked how that was different.
Contributions to the state Democratic Party come from a PAC known as Democratic Action, a federal PAC that Democratic Party officials say takes contributions only from individuals and in amounts limited to $5,000 per year, an assertion federal records appear to confirm. Those contributions would be legal under state law.