Money In Politics

February 27, 2015 - The N.C. Home Builders Association has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting legislators' campaigns and employs a team of powerful lobbyists in Raleigh. What does it want in return?

February 26, 2015 - The Atlanta-based utility giant is in the news for funding a controversial researcher whose work has been used to cast doubt on the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is driving global warming. It isn't the first time the company has been involved in promoting questionable climate science.

February 25, 2015 - Charles and David Koch, who run the Koch Industries conglomerate and support a national network of conservative political groups, plan to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 elections -- and they're getting help from businesspeople in the South.

February 19, 2015 - Democrats made Big Money in politics a big issue in 2014, and now some Republicans want to tackle campaign-finance reform, too. But how far will GOP support go?

February 10, 2015 - In a new report, "Tar Heel Power Brokers," Facing South/Institute for Southern Studies ranks the top 101 most influential special interests in North Carolina politics through a combination of lobbying power and political spending in N.C. state-level elections. These four interactive graphics tell the story of these power brokers' influence in state government.

January 28, 2015 - The Obama administration has proposed opening Atlantic waters to offshore oil and gas drilling after years of being lobbied by a coalition of coastal-state governors that had more than a little industry help. But a growing grassroots movement aims to keep the drills at bay.

January 16, 2015 - With the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision lifting political spending restrictions coming up on Jan. 21, the Brennan Center for Justice released a report this week looking at outside spending and dark money in last year's U.S. Senate races -- and it paints a frightening for democracy.