
NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Several local candidates are on track to break campaign finance records as they vie for positions in one of the state’s most competitive battlegrounds.
READ MORE: Municipal to Midterms: A quick look at where local politicians are getting campaign cash
Sen. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover) is the county’s top fundraiser at $801,127 to secure Senate District 7. Last month, the North Carolina GOP cited the New Hanover County race among its top focuses for the campaign and announced plans for a record-breaking spend of over $2 million on advertisements for the incumbent.
Lee — a development attorney with Wilmington-based law firm Lee Kaess — received support from a broad range of industries, including healthcare, development and education.
Around $6,400 came from the North Carolina Home Builders Association PAC and $5,000 from North Carolina Realtors PAC. Prominent local contributors in the development and real estate industries include long-time supporters Adam and Quinn Sosne of Wilmington-based McAdams Homes, who donated a total of $25,600 from 2023-2024.
The senator received a cumulative total of $34,000 from Cape Fear Commercial partners, $10,400 from Cameron Management executives, $19,200 from Zimmer Development, and $3,000 from Trask Land owner Raiford Trask. The senator also received $18,600 from executives of Florida-based real estate investment firm M Group.
Lee is chair of the Senate’s Appropriations/Base Budget and Education/Higher Education Committees. He has pushed to expand the state’s private school voucher program, including adding $463 million in additional funds in May. Lee has received a total of $11,000 from Charter Schools USA founder John Hagee including a $6,000 donation in January. Florida-based education technology entrepreneur Edward Buckley and Jeff Patterson — founder of California-based student surveillance software firm Gaggle — donated $6,400 each to the senator this year.
The North Carolina Hospital Association donated $5,000 to the senator in March. He received a cumulative $18,600 from Fred and April Eshelman; Eshelman owns Wilmington-based venture capital firm Eshelman Ventures LLC and founded PPD. Lee received $12,200 from executives with Charlotte-based Starmount Healthcare Management.
Lee’s Democratic challenger David Hill — a pediatrician and a former leader of the STOP Titan Action Network — has brought in the county’s second highest figure with $375,540 in total donations. The North Carolina Democratic Party has supplied $72,962 of the first-time candidate’s campaign haul.
Hill received $12,200 from Pamela-Hurst Pietra — chair of medical nonprofit Children and Screens — and $12,200 from Liz Simons, chair of the Heising-Simons Foundation, a childhood education and science nonprofit. Simons is the daughter of billionaire hedge fund manager and prominent Democratic donor James Simons.
Hill’s notable donors include $6,400 from North Carolina-based billionaire Fred Stanback, $2,500 from Wilmington-based attorney Gary Shipman, and $2,500 from Robert Zaytoun, an attorney for local nonprofit Heal Our People’s Endowment. HOPE was created by former District 7 Senator Harper Peterson in March to petition Attorney General Josh Stein to intervene in the New Hanover County Endowment.
Democratic candidate and former U.S. Department of State foreign service officer Jon Berger brought in the third-highest total to challenge Rep. Ted Davis Jr.’s (R-New Hanover) District 20 position. Berger has so-far outraised the incumbent with $119,110 in donations compared to Davis’ $80,133.
Berger received $6,400 donations from California-based attorney Nick Leibhan and Maryland-based attorneys Peter Friedman and Jennifer Levy.
Davis received a maximum $6,400 donation in 2024 from Carolina Marine Terminal founder Michael McCarley, Rountree Losee LLP attorney George Rountree III, Coldwell Banker SeaCoast Advantage realtor Nancy Langevin, and Cape Fear Community College Board of Trustees chair Lanny Wilson.
Wilson also donated $2,500 to Michael Lee, $2,000 to New Hanover County Commissioner Dane Scalise and $1,000 to commissioner Jonathan Barfield. The two incumbent commissioners are CFCC board members.
Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover) does not face a challenger for New Hanover County’s District 18 position. She’s raised $20,197 this election cycle, almost half of which came from a $10,000 NC House Democratic Caucus donation. She received $5,000 from retired nurse Nancy O’Donohue and $1,000 donations from NC Realtors PAC and NC Nurses Anesthetists Association.
NHC Commissioners
Commissioner Dane Scalise — an attorney and insurance broker with GriffinEstep Benefit Group — is facing his first election since being unanimously appointed to the board of commissioners in April 2023 after former commissioner Deb Hayes unexpectedly passed away. He outraised the combined total of the other five candidates — $147,524 — with $183,211 in total donations for the 2024 election. Scalise’s July total eclipses top fundraisers from recent commission elections, such as Vice Chair LeAnn Pierce’s 2022 total of $145,782.
Top donors include partners from Cape Fear Commercial and affiliate firms Cape Fear Development and Cape Fear Construction Group, who gave a cumulative total of $31,700 to the incumbent’s 2024 campaign on February 22. Honeycutt Construction Services president David Honeycutt and Liberty Senior Living president William Purvis gave maximum $6,400 donations to Scalise’s campaign the same day.
Other notable donations include $5,000 from Wesley Corder — Cape Fear Public Utilities Authority treasurer and president of civil construction firm Thomson, Corder & Co. — $5,000 from real estate developer Barron Young and $3,500 from Cameron Management principal Bruce Cameron.
Scalise’s campaign paid NC Red Strategies LLC $5,000 for political consulting in March. The commissioner’s expenditure is the only reported payment to Red Strategies LLC on state board of elections records.
The firm’s founder Caleb Rash — a commercial real estate lawyer with Murchison, Taylor & Gibson PLLC — is Scalise’s campaign manager. Rash is a member of the New Hanover County Board of Adjustment and the president of the Cape Fear Federalist Society.
Bruce Kemp, a NHC Board of Elections member, and Price Waterhouse, computer developer, gave $1,869 to Scalise and $800 to another Republican candidate, John Hinnant. Hinnant is the vice president of Eastern Carolinas Commercial Real Estate and the commissioner race’s second highest fundraiser with $52,283 in total donations.
Hinnant’s top donations include $3,170 from Wilmington-based accountant Cindy Kuhn and $5,000 from Frank and Ramsay Gorham. Gorham is the owner of oil and gas investment firm Sandstone Properties and former Coastal Resources Commission chair; he also donated $4,000 to Lee’s 2024 campaign.
Democratic candidate Cassidy Santaguida, a software product manager with the N2 Company, is the third-highest fundraiser in the commissioners’ race, with $36,382 in total donations for the 2024 election. Top donations include $4,791 from Wilmington-based software firm Vantaca product director Dorothy Weiss, $2,050 from CFPUA board member and physician Jessica Cannon, $1,850 from 2022 District 7 Democratic senate candidate Marcia Morgan, and $1,000 from Rep. Deb Butler.
Democratic commissioner Jonathan Barfield’s total donations this election cycle are $24,475. McAdams Homes principal Adam Sosne is Barfield’s top donor at $5,000, who also gave $6,400 to Scalise. Barfield voted against McAdams’ Landing at Lewis Creek proposal in 2017. Commissioners will hold a public hearing Monday regarding Sosne’s request to rezone 12.6 acres on Carolina Beach Road for 133 single-family units.
Coldwell Banker Seacoast Realty owner Tim Milam is Barfield’s second biggest donor at $2,500. Milam — who is chairman of Wilmington Business Alliance for a Sound Economy and vice chairman of Wilmington Business Development — also donated $2,500 to commissioners Scalise and Bill Rivenbark.
Barfield received support from current and former board members of the New Hanover County Endowment, including $1,000 from chair Bill Cameron, $100 from former member Virginia Adams, and $75 from former CEO William Buster.
Incumbent commissioner chair Bill Rivenbark raised $24,068. He received $1,000 from GriffinEstep Benefit Group president Hank Estep, who also donated $12,200 to Michael Lee and $500 to Hinnant. He received a cumulative $6,500 from Cape Fear Commercial partners, including $1,000 from his brother Charlie Rivenbark, a city councilmember and Cape Fear Commercial senior vice president.
Stephanie Walker, a Democratic NHC school board member and owner of local landscaping and community management businesses, has received $10,316 this election cycle. Walker’s top donations include $2,050 from landscaper Laurie Walker, $1,050 from the NC Democratic party, $500 from film producer Beth Crookham, and $375 from the New Hanover County NAACP.
NHC School Board
Tim Merrick is the top fundraiser among the three Democratic candidates for school board with $26,319. He received $1,000 donations from out-of-state donors, including New York-based investment researcher James Kelly, New Jersey resident Rick Murad and Virginia resident Pam Jones.
Law firm CP Brunswick president Greta Harrelson gave Merrick and Democratic candidate and former school board member Judy Justice $500; it’s Justice’s largest single donation. Justice’s campaign has raised a total of $2,230, primarily through small donors.
Democratic candidate Jerry Jones Jr.’s second quarter campaign finance report is unavailable on New Hanover County campaign finance records; PCD reached out for more current forms and will update upon receipt His first quarter report from February cites $1,000 in total donations from small donors $100 and below.
Natosha Tew, Republican and founder of the local Moms for Liberty chapter, is the top GOP fundraiser on the school board, though not by much. She has collected $11,600 in total, with notable donations including $500 from Zane Newitt, CEO of Colorado-based consultant firm Excalibur DDPM, $500 from Mid Atlantic Acoustics engineering consultant Richard Von Lange, and $500 from retired hospital employee Faye Britt.
Republican David Perry has raised $11,167, including $5,000 from a self-loan. Notable donations include $900 from Lower Cape Fear Republican Women and $100 from Port City Private Investigations investigator Michael Fey.
Republican Nikki Bascome has brought in $11,171. GE engineer Warren Bascome is her biggest donor at $1,200, followed by the Lower Cape Fear Republican Women’s Club at $900. Other notable donations include $600 from education activist Nell Case, $500 from Rountree Losee LLP attorney George Rountree III, and $500 from Stokley Development Group co-owner Jeffrey Stokley.
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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