How much did the candidates for Environment Secretary give?

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue will not necessarily make decisions on who to appoint to her Cabinet based on campaign donations, but that's not to say there's no link between the two.

Here's a quick list of donations from the top contenders:

Bill Ross, current secretary: $4,000, most recently on Oct. 2.

Freda Porter, corporate consultant: $4,000, most recently on Oct. 10.

John Garrou, husband of Sen. Linda Garrou: Nothing, but Senator Garrou's campaign fund gave $3,000, most recently on April 18.

Sen. Dan Clodfelter's campaign, $2,000 on Sept. 26.

Nina Szlosberg, transportation board member: $1,500, most recently on Oct. 16.

Dome could find no donations from former DENR Secretary Bill Holman, parks director Lewis Ledford, Conservation Trust Director Reid Wilson or Creedmoor Mayor Darryl Moss, although his wife Michelle gave $50 on Sept. 4.

One more name has surfaced for Environment Secretary.

John Garrou, a former managing partner of white shoe law firm Womble Carlyle and the husband of Sen. Linda Garrou of Winston-Salem, was reportedly also under consideration for the job. 

He joins a long list of names, including current Secretary Bill Ross, Sen. Dan Clodfelter, parks director Lewis Ledford, former Secretary Bill Holman, Creedmoor Mayor Darryl Moss, conservationist Reid Wilson, transportation board member Nina Szlosberg and consultant Freda Porter.

Dome has heard one more name for the secretary of Environment and Natural Resources.

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a five-term Charlotte Democrat who currently sits on the Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, is reportedly interested in the job.

He joins a long list of names, including current Secretary Bill Ross, parks director Lewis Ledford, former Secretary Bill Holman, Creedmoor Mayor Darryl Moss, conservationist Reid Wilson, transportation board member Nina Szlosberg and consultant Freda Porter.

The opposing pressures from the environmental and business communities are playing out in Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue's search for a Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Eight environmental groups sent Perdue a letter on Dec. 2 asking for a meeting at which they would suggest DENR secretary candidates. Representatives from those groups met with members of Perdue's transition team last week and suggested: former DENR Secretary Bill Holman, currently teaching at Duke; Reid Wilson, executive director of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina and former chief of staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Nina Szlosberg, a board of transportation member and former chair of the Conservation Council of North Carolina's political action committee.

Business groups, though, are unlikely to greet any of those names warmly, and with Perdue understandably focused on job creation, she'll feel pressure from both sides.

Another name in the mix that the corporate side might be more comfortable with is Freda Porter, president of Porter Scientific Inc., in Pembroke, which consults with governments and corporations on a range of environmental issues, including compliance with regulations. She is a Duke-trained PhD in mathematical and computational sciences and did post-doctoral work at UNC Chapel Hill in groundwater contamination. She also is a Lumbee Indian.