This is all pretty gross. As Peeler wrote to me in an email, “it’s astonishing that certain candidates can get by with claiming they are for more affordable rental housing, for less displacement, and for supporting low income tenants, when they are being funded heavily by an organization, which is essentially a landlord lobbying firm, who is vested in ensuring none of those things occur.
After the 2019 election, we reported to you how much money the development industry poured into the candidates’ campaigns. Those developers found out how easy it was to buy council seats for their preferred candidates. It appears they plan to run the same playbook again in 2022. When you ask yourself, why do councilors vote the way they do? You will always find the answer when you FOLLOW THE MONEY.
First we “Showed You the Money.” Then we “Followed the Money.” In this third of our series about the money in Raleigh’s politics, we examine the effects of Special Interest money pouring into the campaigns.
Mary-Ann Baldwin, the mayor of Raleigh, has some $500,000 banked for her election campaign. It’s a tribute to how completely she’s owned by Raleigh’s developers – led by mega-spender John Kane, a right-wing Republican known for backing, among other crazies, our very own GOP Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. (And, of course, Trump.)
As the NC primary election season comes to an end and the summer season arrives, it is time to start focusing on Raleigh's upcoming municipal elections. We are rerunning this release of polling data showing what Raleigh voters think of their local city government. You...
“I have $500,000 in the bank,” she said in an interview with The News & Observer. Her response was in sharp contrast to the more statesmanlike response from challenger Terrance Ruth:
Raleigh is growing rapidly. Where are we headed? Most Raleighites like the idea of growth that is more economical, environmental and equitable. To succeed, we’ll have to grow in ways and in locations that bring fewer cars, more trees and more equitable prosperity.
As a follow-up to Livable Raleigh’s previous blog, “Show Me the Money”, about the development community money spent in the 2019 City Council election, this time we look at the specifics for individual Councilors.
With your help, we are expanding our outreach and partnerships to engage voters and candidates about the most important city issues and highlighting the better answers Raleigh residents want and deserve.
INDY Week's "Best of" winners were announced June 15, 2022 and the results show INDY Readers have the same concerns about Raleigh as the voters who told Public Policy Polling they want change. Livable Raleigh commissioned a poll of Likely Voters and found four...