By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM – One of his opponents had to rely on the 751 South project’s main backer for campaign funding, but Mayor Bill Bell also had a big-money contributor to lean on during his 2011 re-election campaign.

Bell’s year-end campaign-finance report to the county Board of Elections showed that he banked $4,000 – nearly a third of the $12,550 he raised in 2011 – from one source.

And who was it?

No one from around here, as it happens: The $4,000 check came from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“His people called me months before that and said the mayor wanted to contribute to my campaign,” Bell said, explaining how the donation from Bloomberg came about. “I saw him in Washington [recently] and thanked him again for the contribution.”

A Bloomberg aide, Amanda Konstam, on Tuesday said her boss gave to Bell’s campaign because the Durham mayor “is a longtime supporter” of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

The organization is a lobbying group Bloomberg helped found in 2006. Bell is one of only four North Carolina mayors who belongs to it.

Bloomberg is a strong proponent of gun control. He offered the donation to Bell because he “supports those who support New York,” Konstam said.

Another Mayors Against Illegal Guns member from North Carolina, Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, said he’d been offered a Bloomberg donation last year and turned it down because of his town’s unique-in-the-state campaign-finance rules.

“Interesting story,” Kleinschmidt said.

He recounted that he’d gotten a call in September or October from a man who wanted to know the address donations to his re-election bid could be sent.

Kleinschmidt said he quizzed the man about whether he was a Chapel Hill registered voter or resident of Chapel Hill, and turned down the contribution when the answers were no.

“He said, ‘Oh no, I’m from out of state.’ Then I said, ‘Can I ask who you are?’ ” Kleinschmidt said. “And he said he was calling from Mayor Bloomberg’s office. I said, ‘Oh, that’s very thoughtful.’”

“And I inquired, [Bloomberg] was just being supportive of the mayors in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns program, the group he started,” Kleinschmidt said, adding that he only raised about $300 total for his 2011 re-election campaign.

The other local mayor involved in the group, Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, couldn’t be reached for comment. Chilton ran for re-election last year unopposed.

Bell saw off three opponents last fall, taking about 81 percent of the vote in both the October primary and the November general election.

The best-financed of his early challengers, County Commissioner Joe Bowser, didn’t make it out of the primary despite having an $8,300 war chest.

All but $300 of that came from Cree Inc. co-founder and 751 South stakeholder Neal Hunter, and from Hunter’s wife, Janet. The couple gave Bowser twin $4,000 contributions.

Runner-up finisher Sylvester Williams wound up taking in $8,509 for his campaign, but most of that came from his own wallet in the form of a loan to his campaign account. He raised only $380 from other contributors.

Bloomberg, a publishing magnate and Republican, could rather easily afford to write Bell a $4,000 check.

Forbes magazine last year listed him as the country’s 12th-richest person, with a net worth of about $19.5 billion.

It’s not particularly unusual for politicians to give money to other politicians. Bell himself reported making $100 contributions from his campaign account to those of state Sens. Floyd McKissick and Bob Atwater, both of whom are up for re-election this year.