Share
In the final months of her re-election bid, N.C. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry has raised almost twice as much campaign money as her opponent, most of it from industries her department regulates.
Her recent donations include $10,000 from four executives of House of Raeford Farms, an N.C. poultry company whose hiring practices are under investigation by federal authorities.
Earlier this month, federal authorities raided a Greenville, S.C., plant owned by House of Raeford, arresting more than 300 workers believed to be in the country illegally. Among those detained were juvenile workers as young as 15. The U.S. Labor Department is investigating possible violations of child labor laws.
Company officials have said they follow the law, strive to protect workers and don't knowingly hire people who are legally ineligible to work.
Berry, a Republican seeking her third term, has raised $93,000 from individuals since July and an additional $42,000 from political action committees, most of them representing industries the labor department regulates.
Asked about her contributions, Berry said in an e-mail: “Your questions are ridiculous and ludicrous considering individuals have a right under the First Amendment of the Constitution to contribute to political campaigns. … Are business people supposed to check their constitutional rights at the door?”
Berry's Democratic opponent, Mary Fant Donnan, raised about $56,000 from individuals and $13,000 from PACs in the third quarter. About 16 percent of the money she raised from individuals came from company managers and executives.
Donnan said Thursday that she has accepted contributions only from people she knows and who “I trust not to be garnering favoritism.” If elected, she said, she won't accept donations from firms with active cases before the department.
The N.C. labor department is responsible for overseeing workplace safety, inspecting elevators, mines and amusement rides, and administering the state's wage-and-hour law.
Among Berry's recent donors: House of Raeford chairman Marvin Johnson and company President Bob Johnson, who each gave $3,000. Two other firm executives gave $2,000 apiece. Company executives have also contributed to Berry's previous campaigns.
Since 2001, the N.C. labor department has cited the firm for more than 60 serious workplace safety violations – some following chemical accidents that killed one worker and sent 17 others to the hospital. Inspectors proposed about $117,000 in fines, but the penalties were reduced to $26,500.
In a recent Observer investigation, House of Raeford employees said that the company has ignored, intimidated or fired workers who were hurt on the job.
Berry also received other recent donations from poultry processors, an industry that the Observer found leaves many workers with amputations, nerve damage and other serious injuries. The N.C. Poultry Federation PAC contributed $2,000 to Berry. Executives with Prestage Farms, a N.C.-based poultry and pork company, gave $3,000.
Fundraising reports through June showed Berry had collected at least half of her campaign contributions from executives and managers of companies that have been inspected by her department. While the department routinely reduces fines for safety violations, Berry's contributors have usually gotten bigger-than-average breaks, an Observer analysis last month found.
The newly released data, covering contributions made from July through mid-October, show that nearly two-thirds of Berry's individual contributions came from company managers and executives.
Berry has said there's no connection between campaign donations and fines. She said she has participated in settlement negotiations regarding fines just once during her eight-year tenure. N.C. OSHA officials don't consult with her about reducing fines, she said.
A former co-owner of a company that made spark plug wires, Berry this week began airing a 15-second television ad that says she has the “business experience we need.”
Donnan, a program officer for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, this month began running a radio ad that contends: “Berry sees herself as a partner with businesses, not a partner with workers.”
In her e-mail to the Observer, Berry responded: “If North Carolina is not business friendly, then we will be out of business. Our workplace accidents and fatalities are at all time lows. Now that is worker friendly.”
Berry has raised a total of about $213,000, compared with about $129,000 for Donnan.
Donnan has expressed support for public financing of the labor commissioner's race, so that candidates don't have to raise money from companies they regulate. Berry has opposed the idea, likening it to “welfare for politicians.”
