Amid grumblings of potential wrongdoing by the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) during the 2008 campaign season, the Capitol Monitor sought to discover just how the group was operating in North Carolina. ACORN didn’t make it easy.
... MORECandidates for elective office in 2008 desperately sought ways to distinguish themselves from their opponents, and one prominent tool that showed up in campaign advertising across the state is the “Effectiveness Ranking” for incumbent lawmakers produced each legislative session by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Analysis.
... MOREWith the repeal of North Carolina's "right-to-work" law a current legislative "hot topic," unionization of public employees has the potential to make the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) a potent political force. But even without a union affiliation, NCAE is a power player in policymaking and politics.
... MORENorth Carolina’s government employees are upping the ante in the 2008 elections with the emergence of the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) as a major player in political campaigns.
Founded to represent government employees, SEANC is not a non-profit “trade association” as one might traditionally think of an association of professionals. Rather it acts as a labor union – and in 2008, SEANC voted to become legally affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as Local #2008.
Campaigns are seeking to activate new, younger voters as never before. In September of 2008, “electoral action training” workshops were scheduled for Fayetteville, Charlotte, and Central NC to give students a better understanding of their power to impact campaigns, teaching them organizing skills and “creative new tactics” for mobilizing younger voters in the election process.
The seminars were co-sponsored by the US Student Association and Campus Camp Wellstone, a program of the non-profit Wellstone Action Funds of Minnesota. Since Wellstone is new to the North Carolina campaign scene, we thought we’d take a look at the organization and its affiliate.
The Broyhill Family Foundation was originally created by the Broyhills of furniture manufacturing fame primarily to further the principles of free enterprise in which the Broyhills so fervently believed. The interests of the Foundation, however, have grown to envelop a wide range of charitable interests and support of public policy advocacy organizations, primarily leaning to the right. The private organization publishes no official mission.
... MOREThe Burroughs Wellcome Fund is an independent private foundation whose mission is to advance the medical sciences by supporting research and other scientific and educational activities.
According to its own website, the Trust has become the largest charitable foundation devoted to funding biomedical science on the planet, and NC Gives reports that BWF was the sixth largest grant-maker in North Carolina for the fiscal year 2005.
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