outside spending

February 1, 2017 - As attention turns to President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, state courts that handle a million times more cases face an unprecedented threat to their integrity from secretive special-interest spending.

October 28, 2016 - Political groups unaffiliated with candidates' campaigns have already spent a record amount this election cycle to influence races for state supreme court seats. Among the states seeing big spending are Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina.

July 8, 2016 - A charitable nonprofit is paying for TV and web ads that urge Attorney General Roy Cooper — a Democrat challenging incumbent Republican Pat McCrory for governor — to defend the state's controversial HB2, which he's called unconstitutional. How does a charity get away with what looks like political advertising?

September 21, 2015 - So far this year 67 individuals and companies have given $1 million or more to super PACs supporting presidential candidates. Southern donors, including many Texas oil billionaires, account for over 50 percent of the contributions and have given exclusively to GOP candidates. 

May 27, 2015 - A Facing South/Institute for Southern Studies analysis finds that disclosure of more than $7 million spent in North Carolina's 2014 state-level elections was slowed due to inconsistencies in state reporting rules — including details about more than $1.6 million that were hidden from the public until after the elections had passed.

May 21, 2015 - Nine states, four of them in the South, hold judicial elections but don't ban judges from seeking campaign cash from people that could appear before them. Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Florida case upholding such bans, judicial watchdogs are working to change the law in these outlier states.

April 20, 2015 - Super PACS that get nearly all of their money from one donor quadrupled their share of overall fund-raising in 2014.