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Outside Spending On North Carolina Senate Race Soars

Pictures of Money via Flickr

The U.S. Senate race in North Carolina is attracting huge amounts of money from outside the state.

Data from the Federal Election Commission shows that spending on North Carolina's Senate race has soared beyond $58 million.

The amount far eclipses the combined $23 million dollars raised by the two candidates, Republican Sen. Richard Burr and Democratic challenger Deborah Ross.

The Charlotte Observer reports that most of the independent money has come from wealthy individuals and corporations who are free to make unlimited donations to so-called “super” political action committees, so long as the amounts of their contributions and their identities are disclosed.

Analysts say the deluge of spending illustrates the impact of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which lifted the lid on campaign spending from outside sources.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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