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RALEIGH - Walmart may be the world's largest retailer, but until recently its footprint in North Carolina politics has been anything but big box.

That is changing as the company's federal political action committee expands its donations to candidates seeking state office, including $54,000 to state-level candidates during the current election cycle, which began in December 2006 and will continue through November.

Before 2004, the company's PAC gave no money to North Carolina legislative candidates.

"The point of being involved in the PAC process is to build relationships with these individuals, to help them understand what Walmart is doing to be a solution provider," said E.R. Anderson, a company spokeswoman who returned phone calls placed to the PAC's treasurer.

Anderson said that there was no single factor that prompted the company to take an interest in North Carolina or other states' political scenes. Rather she listed transportation, health care and environmental regulation as issues about which the company is concerned.

"Really the PAC giving at both the federal and state levels is generally not a one-hit wonder but is more along the lines of working long-term with these officials," Anderson said.

Officially known as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. PAC for Responsible Government, the retailer's political arm is getting national media attention. In April, the Center for Public Integrity revealed how the company induced managers to give to the PAC by matching their donations to one of the company's charitable arms. Last week, the Wall Street Journal detailed how the company was encouraging its employees to vote against Democrats in U.S. Senate campaigns because of concerns over pro-labor union legislation.

In North Carolina, the PAC seems to support candidates with business-friendly reputations.

Of the 52 North Carolina state-level candidates to whom the PAC has given in the election cycle, recipients include Sen. Phil Berger, a Republican who represents Rockingham County and parts of Guilford County; Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat; Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat; and Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat.

"I cannot recall any particular issue they've approached me about," Berger said. Rather, his best recollection is that company lobbyists have come by for get-to-know-you meetings, while more specific concerns were handled by industry trade groups.

Although it is increasing its activity, Walmart's political donations are dwarfed by more active donors. Progress Energy's PAC, for example, gave $242,750 during the previous campaign cycle. And spending by real estate interests almost always leads the way in donations to state-level candidates here.

Still, the company has good reason to take a greater interest in state policy.

Walmart is the state's largest nongovernment employer, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission. It has five distribution centers in North Carolina and, according to the company, more than 52,700 workers.

Between Sam's Clubs, supercenters and other stores, Walmart has 151 retail locations in the state.

All of that, say legislators and other political observers, gives the company ample interest in state laws.

"Just about any issue you can think of touches them in some way," said Andy Ellen, a lobbyist with the N.C. Retail Merchants Association.

Walmart has been a member of the association for more than 10 years.

And legislators interviewed for this story say that when they've heard about the company's concerns on a particular bill, it has been through the group.

Ellen said that Walmart has not had an agenda that differs a lot from other large retailers in the state.

"They haven't come to us with any earth-shattering, burning issue that they say, 'This has to get done,'" Ellen said.

And the company's involvement in North Carolina is not atypical, said Thom Little, a UNCG political science professor and executive with the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, a national think tank.

Little said earlier in the company's history, Walmart was welcomed into most states and communities as an economic engine.

"They didn't need to lobby," he said.

But during the past decade, resistance to the company has grown in some circles. In particular, he said, some state legislatures have tried to impose restrictions on the size and appearance of big-box retailers. In another example, Maryland in 2006 passed a law that required Walmart to spend more on employee health care.

"It's the state-level policy that affects what they do," Little said. "It's the legislatures that determine zoning laws. They're the ones that write the right-to-work laws."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com