Outside Influence Shows in Leach Election Finance Report
92.2 percent of all funds raised from Jan. 1 to May 24 came from areas insulated by distance from his embattled administration.
The Committee to Re-Elect James A. Leach filed its first financial report for the upcoming election on May 24, 2024. Of the $25,000 it declared, $23,050 came from sources outside of Hoke County. That’s 92.2 percent of all funds raised from Jan. 1 to May 24 sourced from areas insulated by distance from the embattled administration he oversees.
The announcement didn’t come as a shock to many constituents. A growing chorus of voters has long been concerned that the construction and real estate industries are unduly influencing decisions. Other voters feel it’s a solid indication his support base in Hoke County has rotted away with age. He’s held a seat on the Hoke County Commission for 32 years—before the Smartphone was invented—and currently trying to stretch that reign to at least 36 years in November.
Divisiveness over the construction of an elaborate pool named for him, and refusal to release public records to The News-Journal, seem to support those contentions. This month he publicly criticized and tried to permanently expel one of the two volunteer firefighters at a Hoke County Commission meeting after they expressed concern that the county’s chronically low water pressure may soon claim innocent lives. The pair were asking the officials to give infrastructure maintenance and improvement a higher priority over new development.
One hundred percent of donors to the Leach campaign during this initial report are listed as “self-employed,” despite the fact nearly all are listed online as owners of architectural, engineering, construction or real estate firms. All “Job Title/Profession” fields in every one of the six pages were left blank.
Here’s are the numbers from the report, sorted by city of the donor, beginning with those few that came from Hoke County residents. Only those people living outside the county had online connections to the growth and development industries.
Hoke County
$500—Maxton
$700—Raeford
$750—Red Springs
Outside Hoke County
$350—Aberdeen (engineering/architecture/surveying)
$500—Pinehurst (engineering)
$500—Whispering Pines
$2,500—Shannon (contractor in Robeson County)
$5,600—Raleigh (real estate)
$5,600—Pembroke (architect/design/contracting)
$8,000—Fayetteville (attorney, construction, real estate, construction, real estate,
The names have been omitted until final verification, which may likely be totally impossible due to the incomplete report filed by James Leach, treasurer of The Committee to Re-Elect James A. Leach.
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This is such BS!!!!!!!!!!! It should be against the law for this crap to happen. If you cant get your money from Hoke County citizens, then you should take the hint.......... nobody wants you! I dont for the life of me understand how you can get money from anyone other then the people that are suppose to be putting you in office. Bet if the laws were changed he wouldn't have made it past his first term! If he would have even gotten a first term!