
DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997               TAG: 9703250247

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY EMERY P. DALESIO ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RALEIGH                           LENGTH:   99 lines

HOG MONEY WENT TO LAWMAKERS, STUDY SAYS DONATIONS PRECEDE VOTE ON NEW LAWS.

Hog industry interests have given campaign contributions to more than three-quarters of the members of the state House, which may vote as early as this week on new regulations on the industry, according to a study released Monday.

``The industry and the lobbyists are spreading the money out to a large number of people in an attempt to gain access and special treatment to make their case in a way the small farmer that's being put out of business and the neighbor who has to tolerate the odor does not have,'' said Bob Hall, research director for Democracy South.

The Chapel Hill organization studied the industry's donations during the 1996 election cycle in all 170 legislative races, the governor's race, and campaigns for other Council of State offices.

Ninety-three of the 120 current House members received a total of $96,475 from sources the group said were linked to North Carolina's billion-dollar hog industry. Forty-three of the state's 50 senators received $83,127.

In all, 136 lawmakers divided $179,602 in industry giving, Democracy South said. Another $38,000 went to 35 losing legislative candidates.

The group's calculations of the industry's donations to winning legislative campaigns last year represent 2 percent of the $9.1 million spent by victors.

Hall insisted the hog industry's contributions, while a fraction of the total, get attention.

``They don't have to give $100,000 to a single legislator to get them to pay attention,'' Hall said. ``The amount of money is not that enormous and for them it's a small investment to make on behalf of their industry.''

The organization counted $119,000 in donations from all swine interests going to Gov. James B. Hunt's re-election campaign. Hunt raised $10.3 million through January. That means that contributions from hog interests amounted to about 1 percent of Hunt's total.

Democracy South counted donations as coming from the industry if the source was one of three political action committees representing livestock interests, four large corporate hog growers, four lobbyists who represent swine interests, or other meatpackers or processors.

The North Carolina Pork Producers PAC, the North Carolina Farm Bureau PAC and the North Carolina Poultry Federation PAC gave $83,200 to legislative candidates in 1996, the group said.

The executive director of the renamed North Carolina Pork Council, Walter Cherry, was unavailable for comment Monday, his office said.

Principal owners, their families and executives of Murphy Family Farms, Prestage Farms, Carroll's Foods and Goldsboro Milling gave lawmakers a total of $47,378, the group's study said.

Another $62,000 came from four lobbyists who represent hog interests in addition to other clients. Each of the four lobbyists represent at least 10 clients which also include telecommunications companies, firemen, athletic trainers, accountants and tobacco companies.

The report comes as the House considers a bill sponsored by Rep. Richard Morgan, R-Moore, that would impose broad new restrictions on the state's pork industry.

Morgan was one of the top beneficiaries of hog-related money, the group said. His $4,800 in donations were more than any House members except Speaker Harold Brubaker, R-Randolph, and Majority Leader Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston.

The measure Morgan introduced this year would stop pork producers from building new industrial-size hog operations for one year.

Large hog farms also would be banned within a half-mile of outdoor recreation areas or wildlife refuges and within a quarter-mile of any waterway. Counties would be allowed to use their zoning authority to regulate intensive hog farms.

A vote on the plan could come sometime this week. ILLUSTRATION: CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

A list of the top ten members of the state House and Senate

receiving 1996 campaign contributions from pork industry interests,

according to Democracy South, a Chapel Hill research organization.

Report compiled by The Associated Press.

SENATE

Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, $14,351.

Marc Basnight, D-Dare, $12,150.

Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, $9,200.

John Kerr, D-Wayne, $4,725.

David Hoyle, D-Gaston, $3,950.

Roy Cooper, D-Nash, $3,800.