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Having covered local House members in this post (click here), I’m moving on to the state Senate. As before, this is a first-blush look, not a deep scrubbing of the forms. And as before, I’m looking at incumbents right now, with challengers and newcomers getting their due when they actually file to run.

• Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and his party’s leader in the senate, underwent a campaign finance audit and cleaned up a bunch of bookkeeping stuff at the end of last year. (For a summary of that, click here.) His end of year report (PDF here) starts from a clean slate.

  Berger reports raising $119,295 and spending $17,152.64. His committee reports starting the year with $103,696.27 on hand. I’ve got to think the strength of those fundraising numbers have something to do with the prospect that Republicans are seen as having a reasonable chance of taking a majority or near majority of seats in the state Senate during the 2010 elections. (Although its worth noting that Senate leader Marc Basnight has $309,00-plus in the campaign kitty as of January 1, and that's before we even talk about the financial shape of the two party machines.) Certainly Berger is pulling down donations from Cary, Holly Springs, Charlotte and other places that typically don’t have a rooting interest in a Rockingham-County-based district.

  Celebrity (for NC politics) names on Berger’s report include Luther Hodges Jr., a former bank CEO, Carter administration official who now is affiliated with UNC ($1,000) Thomas Foxx, husband of U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx ($100) Phillip J. Kirk Jr., a longtime player in public circles including a 16-year stint as head of NCCBI ($100) and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page ($100).

  A sampling of Berger’s PAC contributions includes: Abbot Laboratories, which has given to several Triad-area lawmakers ($500) ABC of the Carolinas, which are “Associated Builders and Contractors” not liquor or alphabet related ($1,000) Association for Home and Hospice care ($1,000) AT&T ($4,000) Bank of America ($4,000) Duke Energy ($4,000) North Carolina Medical Society ($4,000) Progress Energy ($4,000) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield ($2,000).

  The most interesting expense items are $2,063.22 in mileage costs, which shows Berger was racking up some time on the road while the legislature was out of session. Again, I would chalk that up to his efforts to build a Republican majority in the Senate.
   

• Sen. Katie Dorsett, a Greensboro Democrat, does the math wrong on her forms but reports receiving $2,000 in contributions and starting the year with $22,279.78 cash on hand. (PDF here.) The contributions came from three different PACs including Bank of America ($1,000). She reported $2,045 in contributions to other committees and causes and $1,595.24 in other expenses, mainly for travel.
   
• Sen. Don Vaughan, a Greensboro Democrat, reported $40,375 in contributions during the last half of 2009 and total expenditures of $8,208.78. His cash on hand to start the year was $44,300.06. (PDF here.)

  Celebrity (for NC Politics) names among individual donors include Maurice Jennings, president of Biscuitville ($250) Charles Hagan III, husband of U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, who held the seat before Vaughan ($100) Matt Brown, director of the Greensboro Coliseum ($100) Mark Craig, president of RH Barringer beer distributors ($2,000) Jim Melvin, a former Greensboro mayor ($100) along with the usual roundup of developers and lawyers who give to Greensboro campaigns.

  Among his PAC contributions, Vaughan counts: AT&T ($750) Parker, Poe, Adams & Bernstein, a law firm that does a lot of government relations work ($500) N.C. Advocates for Justice, or as we like to call ‘em, the trial lawyers ($1,000) REAP, a real-estate-related PAC ($1,000) RJ Reynolds ($1,000) Time Warner Cable ($1,000) Service Corp International, a Houston-based funeral service company ($1,000) and Bank of America ($1,000)

  Vaughan’s $8,208.78 went to his cell phone bill as well as fundraising costs and $1,000 to former city council member Bill Burckley’s political consulting firm Compulis.
   

• Sen. Stan Bingham, a Davidson County Republican whose district includes parts of Guilford County, reports raising $7,050 for the last six months and $35,715.75 on the year. He started 2010 with $20,076.53 cash on hand. (PDF here.)

  All of Bingham’s reported contributions came from PACs including Carolina Anesthesiology ($2,000) Duke Energy ($1,500) and Time Warner Cable ($1,000).

  Disbursements mainly went toward typical campaign costs such as mailing and printing. Bingham did make a $2,500 contribution to the N.C. Republican Senate committee for a total of $8,250 to date. That kind of financial support may indicate why Bingham, who sometimes sides with Democrats on certain issues, is still in the good graces of at least some of his GOP colleagues.
   

• Sen. Jerry Tillman, a Randolph County Republican whose district abuts Guilford County, reported raising $41,439 for the last six months of 2009 and starting the year with almost that much in the bank. (PDF here.) Of those contributions, $30,449 came from PACs including Duke Energy ($1,000) Rep. Harold Brubaker’s campaign committee ($1,000) and Progress Energy ($2,000).