There’s a big problem with running for state office.

The problem is money — who needs it, who it’s going to come from, and how those two points find one another.

This problem is why, back in January, we launched the Long Leaf Pine Slate. Trust me, I’m going to tell you all about it here in a second. But first, you need to understand the problem I’m talking about. It’s about money and campaign fundraising.

Here’s the thing: whether we like it or not (hint: no one does!), fundraising is the ammunition of politics. Without enough financial resources, even the best candidates will fizzle. On the flip side, though, it also isn’t everything. Contrary to popular opinion, you cannot really “buy elections.” (Just ask Mike Bloomberg!) Money is a “necessary, but not sufficient” factor. Campaign cash definitely has a diminishing marginal utility curve.

But you still need it.

The big problem: Where will the money come from?

Money is a huge problem for both candidates and donors.

For candidates, it’s incredibly difficult to run for office — almost any office, really, but certainly your state legislature. One of the biggest hurdles is raising money. Cold hard cash, baby.

It costs a lot of money to run for office. So where does it come from? There’s no magic treasure chest sitting at your state party office. If you’re lucky, they might kick in a few thousand dollars (as long as you haven’t pissed anyone off), but you need to raise a lot more. In fact, the ability to fundraise is one of the biggest determinants of whether a candidate will be competitive or not. You don’t necessarily need to out-raise the other guy, but you need enough to stage an effective campaign. So there’s basically two sources: your own pocket, or someone else’s.

Parties love self-funded candidates. If you have the resources to dump a million dollars of your own money into your campaign, your state party will love you. (One of our Slate candidates’ Republican opponents is literally doing this.)

But usually, candidates need to raise money. And that’s really hard. Here in North Carolina, we’ve got 170 legislators, PLUS opposite-party challengers, Congressional candidates, a whole list of state office commissioners and many more out there scouring the state for campaign contributions with events, direct mail, social, online, emails, everything. It’s just a ton of noise, and for the most part, it’s every man and woman for themselves. A big, noisy scrum.

New, mostly unknown candidates have to constantly compete with well-entrenched ones for donors and cash.

And that becomes a big problem for our other key group— the donors.

For donors, all this noise is nearly impossible to follow. For most people, following state political news is as dreary as watching Duke football. They just don’t know who all the candidates are, which are the really strategic districts, the most vulnerable seats, where their donation will have the most impact. This is doubly the case for folks out-of-state.

To recap: the right candidates don’t break through the noise, so the right donors never wind up hearing about them.

That’s a big missed opportunity, because a lot of these donors would actually be supportive, if they only knew who the right candidates and most important races were. But they don’t, so they don’t give, and it’s much harder for those candidates to compete.

So guess who fills that gap instead?

A river of corporate cash