Spending soups up Democratic machine

Backers help Jim Black and Marc Basnight filter money through state party operations into the coffers of candidates and causes they support

CARY -- When state Senate leader Marc Basnight throws a fundraiser, the big political players show up.

On a recent evening, dozens of lobbyists representing nearly every major corporation or interest group in the state gathered under the crystal chandeliers of the grand ballroom at Prestonwood Country Club.

The N.C. State University boosters wore red jackets to underscore their school's support. Former governor and corporate lawyer Jim Hunt, recovering from surgery at his Wilson farm, left his sickbed to preside.

But perhaps the most striking figure was the host, Jim Goodnight, the Cary computer software magnate, a Republican who admires tax-cutting conservative Steve Forbes. On this night, Goodnight helped raise more than $200,000 for Basnight.

"My tendency on the national level is to vote Republican," Goodnight said when asked why he was supporting Basnight. "But in the state of North Carolina, the Democrats are more in my field of belief in terms of improving education."

Basnight and House Speaker Jim Black, also a Democrat, run powerful operations stoked by money from North Carolina's business community. Black and Basnight use the money to win votes in competitive districts and strengthen allegiance among Democratic legislators.

Those same legislators then vote every two years to keep Basnight and Black as their leaders.

Basnight is in his 14th year leading the 50-member Senate -- the longest-serving leader in its history. Black is in his fourth term as leader of the 120-member House.

Their years as leaders have helped Basnight and Black build political organizations that rival the major political parties. They recruit candidates, hire their own teams of political consultants, target races and raise millions in political funds. They have consolidated power in their chambers -- controlling the flow of legislation, the appointment of committees and the perks of office.

They use the budget to dole out favors, which helps engender loyalty and solidify their power.

In a recent budget, Black, Basnight and Richard Morgan, who was co-speaker of the House, placed nearly $14 million in reserve accounts and then gave the money to nonprofits and governmental agencies in favored lawmakers' districts.

Even critics marvel at the effectiveness of the legislative political organizations.

"North Carolina, and in particular the Senate, has as disciplined and as an effective a political machine as there is in the country," said Republican Sen. Robert Pittenger, a Charlotte businessman.

The rise of potent legislative organizations corresponds with the arrival of fierce two-party competition. In the 1994 national GOP landslide, Republicans won control of the House and came within one seat of winning the Senate.

"After '94, we figured we better join modern political thought," said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat. "We had better get ourselves organized, or it was not going to be a very happy time for us."

Senate Democrats understood that political survival required a more professional and better-financed operation, Rand said. House Democrats learned the same lesson, Black said, and built an organization that allowed them to retake the House in 1998.

The key is raising money -- $124 million spent on legislative races over the past 14 years by both sides.

During the 2004 elections, Democrats spent $16.8 million to keep control of the legislature, compared to $9.6 million by Republicans, according to the UNC Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life.

A show of might