A newly formed political action committee plans to spend millions of dollars to attack Senate leader Phil Berger's Republican opponent in next year's primary.
Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page is giving Berger his first-ever major election challenge in his district north of Greensboro. The powerful GOP senator often runs unopposed in his party's primary. TV stations in the Triad are already airing ads attacking Page.
The cartoonish ads say Page has taken taxpayer-funded trips to casinos and resorts. Page says that the trips were to professional development conferences hosted by the N.C. Sheriffs’ Association. Another ad highlights problems at the county jail Page oversees. Others promote Berger's candidacy.
The ads aren’t funded by Berger’s campaign, but are instead the work of a newly formed political action committee called “NC True Conservatives.”
Longtime Charlotte-based political consultant Larry Shaheen is the group’s treasurer. He told WUNC it was created “to support and defend the architect of North Carolina’s conservative comeback.” The plan is to spend millions on ads across multiple platforms.
“By the time we’re done, there shouldn’t be a Republican in that district who will consider voting for” Page, Shaheen said.
Shaheen declined to say who’s funding the group so far, but he said the donors will eventually be disclosed through campaign finance reports. Because the group is a registered PAC, that disclosure is required.
Meanwhile, Berger has become the target of attack ads from a newly formed dark money group. A group called “NC Families For Prosperity” (no connection to the conservative advocacy group Americans For Prosperity) formed this fall and is running a website and digital ads against Berger. One ad calls him a “power hungry senator” who’s “looking out for himself,” criticizing his redraw of Congressional districts and his support for a ban on shrimp trawling.
WUNC contacted the Chapel Hill attorney listed on incorporation papers for "NC Families For Prosperity," Josh Starin, asking him about the group’s leaders. He didn’t respond.
“NC Families For Prosperity,” is set up as a nonprofit “social welfare organization,” and therefore doesn’t have to file campaign finance reports required for PACs like "NC True Conservatives." Shaheen says he suspects the anti-Berger group is funded by Democrats who would like to see Berger ousted.
