FOLLOW THE MONEY: Power players in Southern politics

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.

December 1, 2020 - Republican lawmakers in Florida and Washington, D.C., are pushing bills to keep workers or customers who get COVID-19 from holding businesses accountable in court. The GOP wants legal immunity for businesses that comply with government standards. 

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.

October 20, 2020 - We look at the political groups spending millions of dollars to support President Trump's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the high court — and the business interests funding them.

August 20, 2020 - Emails obtained by Facing South reveal that as workers and community advocates begged for the closure of poultry plants with outbreaks, government and company officials worked closely to present a united front — and keep them open.

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.

July 23, 2020 - A group formed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) to strategize reopening the state's economy is chaired by a scion of the billionaire Walton family who sits on Walmart's board of directors, and it is staffed by employees of his holding company, according to documents obtained by Facing South.  

July 15, 2020 - With COVID-19 cases on the rise in Southern states, federal and state elected officials are trying to prevent infected customers and workers from being able to sue negligent businesses.

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.

June 19, 2020 - Spurred by recent protests over police brutality, the North Carolina-based banking giant, which has a long history of racial discrimination, recently pledged to donate $1 billion over the next four years to address racial and economic inequality. But political spending by the company's employee PAC program is at odds with that goal.

May 22, 2020 - Dominion Energy's and Duke Energy's need for gas was in decline even before the COVID-19 outbreak, which has further cut energy demand. But the companies are still pressing ahead with what critics warn could turn out to be an $8 billion-plus stranded fossil-fuel asset, even while the urgency of addressing climate change becomes clearer.

May 20, 2020 - At the state and federal level, lawmakers are pushing legislation that would prevent some people from suing their employers if they contract the novel coronavirus at work. Labor leaders call the proposals an "outrage" and an attempt by businesses to skirt responsibility.

March 24, 2020 - The campaign laid off hundreds of staffers this month, despite its promises to keep them employed through the November election. Now several organizers who worked in states including Florida and Georgia are suing.

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.

March 10, 2020 - The Arkansas Supreme Court will have a new conservative majority following Barbara Webb's win in last week's election. Webb's campaign was backed by GOP money, and she faces an allegation of violating ethics rules by campaigning as a Republican for the nonpartisan seat.

February 28, 2020 - Nearly $30 million in 90 days: that's how much the Democratic presidential hopefuls spent on political Facebook ads in Southern states. Where the candidates are choosing to target them provides a glimpse of their strategy for winning the party's presidential nomination.

February 14, 2020 - With another round of redistricting on the horizon after the Census Bureau releases new population data at the end of 2020, Democratic and Republican groups are amassing vast war chests to win state legislatures. Here are the key races to watch.

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.

February 10, 2020 - With the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday coming up soon, some Democratic presidential candidates are turning their resources to the South — yet some states in the region are being almost entirely ignored.

January 29, 2020 - Longtime elections watchdog Bob Hall has filed a complaint with the state elections board claiming that the Sons of Confederate Veterans' North Carolina Heritage PAC was unlawfully formed and engaged in illegal financing activity. But so far the elected officials who received money from the PAC aren't rushing to return it.

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.

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.

January 16, 2020 - Since the U.S Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United 10 years ago, corporate campaign cash has poured into supreme court races across the South. With seats up for grabs this year in Arkansas, North Carolina, and West Virginia, that trend is likely to continue.

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.

December 19, 2019 - The presidential candidate, billionaire philanthropist, and former New York City mayor hopes Southern cities will hand him the Democratic nomination. But it'll be an uphill battle.

December 18, 2019 - The North Carolina division of the leading neo-Confederate group has a political action committee, and it's spending money to influence legislative and council of state races.

December 17, 2019 - Eighteen state attorneys general have signed a friend-of-the-court brief calling for construction to proceed on the legally blocked Atlantic Coast Pipeline. All of the signatories are members of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a political influence group funded by dirty energy interests.

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.

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.

November 18, 2019 - The Trump administration is taking comments on proposals to ease coal ash regulations that the EPA adopted after the catastrophic 2008 spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in East Tennessee. Critics say the proposed rules would take a toll on public health by allowing more pollution, and on the public purse by letting utilities shift costs.

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.