Chitlik, Woodard each have complex campaign finance tales
Records show incumbent Mike Woodard relies heavily on previous campaign money and contributions from special interest groups while challenger Sophia Chitlik draws on significant familial support.
This BCPI: Open Sources (BCPI.OS) article is written by Brian Callaway and Lucia Constantine. BCPI.OS stories focus on delivering data-driven discoveries from publicly-available datasets.
“Follow the money”—and you expect to find some answers. But in the cases of the campaign finance stories from NC Senate District 22 incumbent Mike Woodard and challenger Sophia Chitlik, there are no simple answers. Voters in northern, central and eastern Durham will decide in the March 5 primary which one becomes the nominee for the safely-Democratic seat.
2024 Campaign: Head-to-head finances
District 22 became heavily Democratic just ahead of the 2022 primary and now includes all of northern Durham County and large swaths of central and eastern Durham. Woodard won the last competitive primary for the seat in 2012 when he made the leap to the open NC Senate seat after being twice elected to Durham City Council as the Ward 3 member.
Woodard brings an accumulated campaign war chest from his previous Senate races. On the day Woodard filed for re-election on December 4, 2023, his campaign finance committee already had $49,388 in cash-on-hand available from previous fundraising mostly associated with his 2022 campaign. (Note: Woodard did unsuccessfully run for Durham Mayor in 2023, but the campaign finances for that race were held separate of his senatorial campaigns.)
This is Chitlik’s first political campaign, and she started her campaign finance committee on December 15, 2023, the same day she filed to run for the Senate seat. By December 31 she had quickly accumulated $34,089 in cash-on-hand, easily out-raising Woodard in the early days of their campaigns.
The chart above and all subsequent analyses in this article include figures as reported to the State Board of Elections in the last reporting period ending December 31, 2023 and all $1,000 and higher receipts that were reported up to February 26, 2024. The next campaign finance reports are due on Tuesday February 27.
Chitlik: Big family donations
The average contribution to the Chitlik campaign is $1,340 across 35 donors. Contributions from herself and close family members make up more than a third of her raised funds. Her husband’s parents contributed $6,400 each (which is the individual limit per election), and her husband and father contributed $1,000 each for a total of $14,800 from her immediate family.
Over half (55%) of Chitlik’s contributors—a combination of investors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, real estate professionals, and teachers—do not live in North Carolina with nearly a quarter residing in California. Aside from family members and not including unidentified small donors, only three of Chitlik’s donors (reported so far) are registered to vote in District 22.
Although Chitlik may be entirely new to the political scene in North Carolina, her in-laws have an extensive history of making political donations in the state.
BCPI.OS has tabulated 244 political donations recorded by the Abram family in North Carolina: since 1991, those donations have totaled $886,526.45. For this analysis, the “Abram family” specifically refers to Chitlik’s husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law.
There have been four calendar years when the Abram family has cumulatively donated over $100,000 to political causes in the state; each of those years include five-figure donations to political party apparatuses. (Unlike political campaigns, political party donations have no limits.)
The following table shows the largest groups and campaigns to receive Abram family donations, where all figures are cumulative donations.
Abram family donations included a Durham focus in 2023 with contributions to the Mayor, top vote-getter on Council and multiple members of the Durham delegation to the General Assembly.
Woodard: Reliance on funding from special interests
In this election season Woodard has raised a total of $16,650 as of the latest available campaign finance reports with $15,000 coming from corporate political action committees (PACs) and the balance of $1,650 in individual contributions. Eleven PACs representing pharmaceuticals, consumer loans, home builders, accountants and other industries have contributed so far with the largest contributions of $2,500 coming from NC Farm Bureau and NC Home Builders Association. The average PAC contribution was $1,364.
The majority (78%) of Woodard’s contributions come from North Carolina. Out of Woodard’s three individual contributors in 2023, only one of them is registered in District 22.
Since 2014, Woodard has received $107,347 from individuals and $287,132 from PACs, with non-party related PAC contributions spiking in 2020 and 2022 at $99,820 and $100,744, respectively.
Woodard’s campaign funding has increasingly come from PACs. In 2014, 71% of his campaign contributions were from individuals, but by 2023, 89% have come from PACs.
Although PAC contributions are nearly three times the figure Woodard has raised from individuals since 2014, there is not one PAC or specific industry that dominates the donor records. Records indicate the Woodard campaign has accepted donations from roughly 151 different PACs since 2014. (Note: due to poor or misleading reporting, many PAC names in the Woodard records are duplicated, misspelled or entered with minor variations such as inconsistent use of acronyms, making it difficult to ascertain the actual number of unique donor groups and their cumulative contributions.)
Durham voters to decide
Both candidates are affiliated with complicated campaign contribution histories and associations, and it will be up to voters to decide their preferences. Early Voting is already underway at select sites and continues until Saturday March 2. The Primary takes place Tuesday March 5 when all local precincts in Durham will be open.
Any chance you could do an article on candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction?