FOLLOW THE MONEY: Power players in Southern politics

By Chris Kromm / October 26, 2018

Facing South's ongoing coverage and special reports tracking the Big Money flowing into elections and influencing politics in the South, and efforts for campaign finance reform.

Articles in this series

INSTITUTE INDEX: Meet the conservative powerbroker suing True the Vote over fraud claims flop

By Sue Sturgis
December 4, 2020 - North Carolina pharmaceutical entrepreneur Fred Eshelman gave $2.5 million to the Houston-based group to pursue claims of fraud in the presidential election, which he says they failed to take adequate action to substantiate. It's not the first time Eshelman, a big political spender who gives most of his money to outside groups, has been involved in funding ethically questionable efforts.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Virginia senator's law firm promotes GOP voter fraud lies

By Sue Sturgis
November 16, 2020 - Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, whose managing partner is Virginia state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R), was one of three main law firms involved in this year's unprecedented election litigation. That work continued the partners' longtime efforts to create the appearance of voter fraud where none exists — a gambit that's gotten the firm sued for defamation in North Carolina.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Meet the Trump megadonor behind Postal Service delays

By Sue Sturgis
August 6, 2020 - After North Carolina businessman and major GOP donor Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in May, he announced an "operational pivot" to control costs that's caused delivery delays. Critics worry that DeJoy — who grew wealthy on USPS contracts and remains invested in USPS competitors — is a political partisan who's operationalizing President Trump's hostility to mail-in voting.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Pipeline resistance pushes Dominion, Duke Energy to a greener future

By Sue Sturgis
July 14, 2020 - Facing mounting costs and legal challenges, the Southern energy giants have canceled the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline planned to carry fracked gas from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. The move came after intense opposition to the project from environmentalists, racial justice advocates, and local communities, and it will allow the companies to focus on meeting state renewable mandates.

The Tennessee company behind the Washington nursing home coronavirus crisis

By Sue Sturgis
March 13, 2020 - A skilled nursing facility that's part of the Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America chain, which is owned by billionaire GOP donor Forrest Preston, is at the center of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the Seattle area. Stories have emerged of gross mismanagement of the outbreak at the facility, whose corporate owner has also recently been in trouble for Medicare fraud and worker discrimination.

Climate watchdog files FCC complaint over public radio station's Duke Energy promos

By Sue Sturgis
February 14, 2020 - WUNC, a National Public Radio member station serving North Carolina's Research Triangle region, regularly airs promotional spots underwritten by Duke Energy. NC WARN has filed a complaint about them, saying they cross the line into ads, which are banned from noncommercial radio. The University of Arkansas recently settled a similar complaint against two stations it operates.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Rethinking the South's electric utility monopolies

By Sue Sturgis
January 28, 2020 - With Southern states' monopoly electric utilities clinging to a business model that's worsening the climate crisis, polluting the environment, and costing consumers dearly, there's growing interest in opening markets to competition. While a ballot initiative to end Florida's electricity monopoly was recently rejected by the state Supreme Court, there are efforts underway to end Virginia's monopoly system and to study the question in the Carolinas.

Citizens United at 10: Why fighting corruption is a racial justice issue

By Chris Kromm
January 17, 2020 - It's been a decade since the Supreme Court ruling opened a new era of Big Money influence in politics, heightening concerns over corruption and creating new barriers for lower-income candidates and candidates of color. But democracy advocates and their allies have responded by building a movement that links anti-corruption measures with broader reforms.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Will Northrop Grumman get its long-planned war with Iran?

By Sue Sturgis
January 10, 2020 - In a sales pitch to the Pentagon over a decade ago, the Virginia-based military contractor imagined a hypothetical war with Iran by 2020. With its dream edging closer to reality following the recent Trump-ordered killing of Iranian military leaders, Northrop Grumman — which has received billions of dollars' worth of government contracts despite a record of fraud — saw a dramatic jump in its stock price.

Big Energy front group launches push for troubled Atlantic Coast Pipeline

By Sue Sturgis
December 6, 2019 - An industry lobby fronting as a pro-consumer group is undertaking a public advocacy campaign for a proposed pipeline stretching from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. The Consumer Energy Alliance was created by an oil industry lobbyist who now chairs the N.C. Republican Party — and its members include major gas companies as well as Dominion Energy, the pipeline's lead partner.

Southern states take up fight for bold democracy reforms

By Chris Kromm
December 6, 2019 - With reform blocked in Washington, voting rights advocates are shifting their attention to the states and are proposing far-reaching, pro-democracy agendas across the South. While the plans face an uphill battle, advocates see their efforts as a chance to be proactive after years of playing legal and political defense.

Private prisons form alliance, hire flack from pro-Trump attack group

By Sue Sturgis
November 8, 2019 - Facing criticism that's hurting stock prices, private prison companies have banded together to create a new industry advocacy group called the Day 1 Alliance. Its spokesperson previously led a Virginia super PAC that targeted career EPA employees who criticized President Trump and NOAA employees who supported progressive Democrats.